U.S. postal worker verbally and physically abused by racist woman (Update 2)

by Steve Ragan - Nov 12 2010, 07:16

A certified postal delivery in Hingham, Mass., got ugly when, after signing for a letter, a woman decided she wanted the signature card back because the mail was addressed to her husband. When the USPS employee refused, he was subjected to a racist verbal assault that ended with a physical attack.

And what was the USPS employee's reward for remaining calm during this ordeal? He says he was fired.

All the details related to the story are presently unknown. While there are possible suspects as to the female attacker's identity, the mail carrier behind the clip has not named her. However, YouTube poster 'hugsonamic', who uploaded the two videos of the attack, has revealed he was removed from his position as a postal employee after the incident.

In a comment submitted beneath the first YouTube video, hugsonamic explains how he was waiting for the “US Postal Services to tell me why there has not been an investigation, which was the reason that I was fired.”

Adding to that, his comments attributed to the second video explain there was no trial, and that the U.S. Postal Inspection Service remained inactive. When asked why he did not simply drive away from the woman's vitriol, hugsonamic said it was unsafe to do so because she was too close to the vehicle, and at times held on to it.

He later learned that the woman in the video was the babysitter for one of the police officers who responded to the incident, but that only leaves more questions than answers in our opinion.

“I've just learned both the police department and the court have dropped the case, she is free, and no charges against her. I was never sent a noticed (sic) by the court to appear for hearing nor trial. And a year since that happened, USPS postal inspection service has not investigated this matter,” comments left by the ex-postal employee repeated.

The videos, which we have embedded below, are hard to watch. After spending several minutes blasting the postal worker with racial slurs, the woman seemingly strikes out at him and screams a demand that he “Give me my signature!”

Upon asking why he has been slapped, the woman tells him to stop making things up, adding that: “You killed Martin Luther King, you niggers turn on each other, you’re stupid... you’re dumb, you can all go under...”

[Note: This horrific incident goes from bad to worse in video two from 1:28 to the end.]

For now, what the public has seen is easily tagged as a shameful act of racism. However, according to comments from hugsonamic, there are a total of four videos detailing the attack. While the police have seen them all, the public has not.

If those missing videos show her side of the story, then they had better be seriously damning on the postal worker’s part to come close to explaining the woman's rage. Still, even if they were, it still doesn’t excuse the assault or the vile racist remarks. There's just no excuse for what she said.

Sadly, although the entire story remains a mystery, that hasn’t stopped Internet users from gathering around and hunting down suspects based on still images from the video and the comments made by the woman in them. We feel for any innocents that get dragged into the witch hunt.

We’ve reached out to hugsonamic for more information and have also sought official comment from the U.S. Postal Service. We’ll update this article with more information as and when we have it.

Update 2:

Earlier today, videos of a racial and physical attack against a postal worker sparked outrage online. The postal worker, who posted the videos online, claims to have been fired because of the incident. New information however, could mean that the Internet’s cries for justice are unneeded, as the attacked postal worker himself is the sole reason she was never sent to jail for her crimes.

This afternoon, The Tech Herald spoke with Lt. Michel Peraino of Hingham Police Department. During our conversation, we were told that police learned of the incident on October 13, 2009, when a postal supervisor called to report that one of his carriers was assaulted by a female while on his route.

The female, Erika Winchester, 60, is known from previous incidents, including a 2005 arrest for drunk driving and an arrest in 2007 for causing a disturbance at the Hingham National Guard Armory.

When police arrived to interview the postal worker, Hugson Jean, 48, they leaned that Winchester was demanding the return of a signature card after she had signed for registered mail. This is where the videos come in to play, as the verbal assault is directly related to her efforts to get the card returned.

We’ve since learned that even if Jean wanted to return the card, he cannot, as the signature card is the property of the person who paid to have the mail registered.

While interviewing Jean, Hingham Police officers were made aware of the video, including the assault and racist remarks, leding police to charge Winchester with Assault and Battery/Hate Crime. During a hearing for Winchester on November 24, 2009, an attorney for Jean was present and stated that his client did not want to testify or go forward with charges.

Given that the victim in the case wasn’t pressing charges, the complaint was set to be held for one year. This means that if during the next year Winchester stayed out of trouble, the charges of Assault and Battery/Hate Crime would drop. The one year hold on the complaint expires in 12 days. Winchester admitted to police that she made the racist remarks, but she denies the assault.

So where are we with all of this? There was justice for his attack available, but the Jean refused to press charges. Why walk away? Why now, as the hold ends, post these videos to the public and incite a massive Internet-based lynch mob?

The YouTube postings make the claim that he was fired over this incident. Digging deeper, it would appear the dismissal was not related to this incident at all. Jean was a temporary letter carrier who had been hired to work from February through November 2009.

According to statements given to The Boston Globe by Christine Dugas, a spokeswoman for the US Postal Service’s Office of the Southeast New England District in Providence, "His length of employment with the Postal Service had absolutely nothing at all to do with this incident..."

We’ve asked for ‘hugsonamic’ to tell us the whole story, but have not heard back from him.

Update 1:

This afternoon, while he was making his normal delivery, we spoke to our local mail carrier for his opinions. While there was some initial confusion, once the incident was explained, he gave us some interesting thoughts.

It is nearly impossible to get fired as a mail carrier. You have to steal mail he said. Even then the union is so strong; you have to be a habitual thief before this would happen. In the case of the racist attacks, if the postal worker who posted the videos remained as calm through the entire ordeal as it appears, there is no clear reason as to why he was fired.

The second she hit him, she should have gone to jail. It is illegal to strike a postal worker, and hanging on to the truck is an offence if you wish to push the issue. This is due to the fact that delaying postal service is illegal.

So since the postal worker is out of a job, and she appears to have been let go without incident, there is more to this case than what is online. Our mail carrier told us that local unions may deal with things differently, but the physical abuse alone is what should have led to her arrest, and if he was represented by the union, his being struck should have prevented any “good ‘old boy” desire to have him removed if it was there.

So is this a union issue? Is this a legal issue? Perhaps it is both, and no matter how you swing it, somebody is about to have dirty laundry aired to the masses. We’ll keep emailing the postal inspection service and other sources of information.

Again, we have to make mention that there are allegedly two other videos that no one has seen. It is our hope we can get our hands on them. What we’d like to see is clear evidence of a physical strike, and if there was a supervisor called to the scene along with the police.

Note: The Smoking Gun has an interesting report on her.

"Erika Winchester, 60, can be seen in the YouTube video using racial slurs as she berates a mailman outside her home in Hingham...Police records show that Winchester was arrested in January 2007 after causing a disturbance at the Hingham National Guard Armory."

"Winchester was also arrested in August 2005 for drunk driving after she crashed her Volvo through a street sign and narrowly missed driving head-on into a minivan, according to a police report."

Videos have been moved to page 2

VIDEO 1

VIDEO 2

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