4/22/19 – A Tacoma woman has settled a 2016 lawsuit filed against the U.S. Postal Service and a former mail carrier with a long history of inappropriate behavior with women on his routes, including entering homes without permission and suggesting his customers purchase and wear items from lingerie catalogs he delivered.
According to court documents, former mail carrier Robert Taitano pleaded guilty in 2015 to third-degree attempted assault with sexual motivation and first-degree criminal trespass with sexual motivation in connection with the incident involving the woman, who is identified in the lawsuit only by initials. Her young son was also a plaintiff since he was in the house when Taitano sneaked in the front door while the woman was in the shower.
The woman said she was in the bathroom of her Tacoma apartment on Aug. 4, 2014, when she heard her young son say “Hi” to someone in the other room. She entered the living room to find Taitano, in his mail carrier’s uniform, “had one hand on the doorknob and one hand part of the way up the door, and he was very slowly and quietly closing the door.”
The woman said she screamed at him to get out, but that Taitano “smirked” and leered at her, said the door was unlocked, and began to move into the house. Terrified, the woman said she made for a large knife in the kitchen and Taitano fled.
Police conducted an extensive investigation, uncovering several other incidents involving Taitano that the Postal Service was apparently already aware of, according to the lawsuit. Taitano was convicted in connection with the incident involving the woman who sued, and he is listed as a level II sex offender in Pierce County, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.
The lawsuit alleges at least 12 women complained over the years about Taitano, some several times, but he remained employed as a mail carrier until his arrest. Read more at the Seattle Times