Costa Mesa woman among 3 facing fraud charges

-- Deepa Bharath

A Costa Mesa resident is one of three former postal workers charged

Friday with filing false or fraudulent workers’ compensation claims with

the Department of Labor, officials said.

Catherine Gleason, 44, faces a two-count indictment charge. One

alleges she filed false claim forms in 1999 and 2000 when she worked for

a business known as Gleason Shoes. The second alleges that Gleason

misused her workers’ compensation benefits after she suffered from an

injury while working as a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service.

The maximum penalty for each count of false statements or fraud to

obtain federal employees’ compensation is up to five years in prison and

court-ordered fines to the U.S. Postal Service, depending on the

sentencing.