A Cherokee County postal worker was sentenced to three years of probation Thursday for backing over a woman with her mail truck and then lying to investigators about it.
Jaynie Underwood pleaded guilty to two charges in connection with the 2020 incident, which left a Woodstock-area woman hospitalized with a serious head injury.
Cherokee County deputies responded to a home along Coleman’s Bluff Drive on March 18, 2020, after receiving calls about a 60-year-old woman lying in the roadway.
Underwood, who was delivering mail along her route, told investigators that Barbara Daniels was standing in the grass near her mailbox as she drove by. When Underwood looked in her mirror, she said Daniels had fallen face down in the roadway, authorities said.
Deputies asked the mail carrier if her truck hit Daniels and Underwood told them it did not, according to the sheriff’s office. But surveillance footage from a neighboring home told a different story.
“Upon checking the footage it was discovered that after placing the mail in Daniels’ mailbox, Underwood continued to the next house,” sheriff’s office spokesman Capt. Jay Baker said at the time. “Daniels can be seen checking her mailbox and then begins walking down the road for her daily walk. Daniels is walking toward the mail truck, which is still next door, when the mail truck starts backing up and strikes Daniels, knocking her to the ground.”
Underwood was later arrested and indicted last year on charges of improper backing and making a false statement, court records show. She pleaded guilty to both counts Thursday afternoon and was sentenced to three years on probation and 80 hours of community service. She must also pay restitution to the victim, according to the district attorney’s office. That amount will be determined in the next 30 days.
It wasn’t immediately clear Thursday afternoon whether Underwood is still employed by the U.S. Postal Service.
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