A Glen Cove woman who formerly worked for the U.S. Postal Service was convicted of wire fraud after federal prosecutors said she collected more than $900,000 in tax-free workers’ compensation benefits while falsely claiming she was totally disabled.
Luann Middleton, 72, was convicted Friday following a four-day jury trial in federal court in Central Islip before U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Middleton faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced, along with financial penalties.
Prosecutors said Middleton claimed in August 1997 that she injured her lower back while working as a postal clerk and began receiving federal workers’ compensation benefits about three months later.
She briefly returned to work on limited duty in February 1999 after a doctor determined she was capable of working, prosecutors said. Middleton then reported a recurrence of the injury and claimed she was totally and permanently disabled.
From November 1997 through September 2022, Middleton repeatedly submitted medical evaluations and records to the Postal Service and U.S. Department of Labor stating that she was unable to return to work, prosecutors said.
Some evaluations claimed she could not sit, stand, walk, bend, lift or reach above her shoulders for any amount of time and could not participate in physical activity because of severe back pain.
Federal investigators, however, documented Middleton performing numerous activities between October 2015 and March 2022 that prosecutors said contradicted those claims.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middleton was observed cleaning out a garage, sitting through a movie for more than two hours, standing for more than an hour during a cookie decorating class, climbing stairs and shopping.
Video also showed her carrying groceries and laundry bags, bending to pick up items, reaching for objects and lifting a bag of potting soil from a shopping cart into her vehicle, prosecutors said.
Postal Service and Labor Department records showed Middleton received more than $900,000 in workers’ compensation benefits based on the physical limitations she claimed, according to prosecutors.
“For more than 20 years and until her lies caught up to her, the defendant refused to come to work and instead collected tax-free disability benefits for a highly-exaggerated injury,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said.
The case was investigated with assistance from the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General and the Department of Labor.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles P. Kelly and Ashlyn Miranda are prosecuting the case.
