Postal Carrier Gets 1 Year for Assault on Woman

A U.S. postal carrier has been sentenced to one year in jail and placed on three years’ probation for sexually assaulting an office worker along his El Monte mail route.

John D. Matthews, 52, of Baldwin Park, pleaded no contest Monday to one count of unlawful penetration with a foreign object. In exchange for the plea, charges of rape, oral copulation and false imprisonment were dismissed. An earlier trial ended in a hung jury.

Matthews was accused of sexually assaulting a 30-year-old Rowland Heights woman last Aug. 18 after he dropped off the mail at an office in the Flair Industrial Park, where she was working alone on a Saturday. Detectives said Matthews then continued his deliveries. The U.S. Postal Service suspended Matthews, who had been an employee for more than 20 years.