Glen Cove postal worker got $800G for back injury on job, lifted heavy objects, prosecutors say

A postal worker from Glen Cove collected more than $800,000 in workers’ compensation over 25 years for what she claimed was a job-related back injury but lifted heavy objects and engaged in other activities more strenuous than the "light duty" offered by her employer, a prosecutor said Tuesday. 

Luann Middleton, 72, was indicted in October, a decade after federal authorities began investigating following her response to a fictitious survey for workers' comp recipients indicating she liked to participate in activities her injured back should have prevented her from doing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashlyn Miranda told the jury during opening statements of Middleton's federal wire fraud trial in Central Islip 

"She was doing all the things she told the Department [of Labor] and her doctor she couldn’t do," Miranda said before U.S. District Judge Gary Brown.

Medical evaluation forms submitted by Middleton, who records show worked at the mail facility at Kennedy Airport, alleged she could not sit for more than 15 minutes at a time or participate in any physical activities due to severe back pain, according to the indictment. Despite that claim, Middleton was observed sitting through a movie theater screening, attending a cookie decorating class, carrying heavy grocery bags and lifting items over her head during a seven-year investigation into her workers’ compensation claims, prosecutors said.

Debunked by video

Miranda said the health claims Middleton made were debunked by video evidence investigators compiled as they watched her over the years.

But defense attorney Masooma Javaid, who is representing Middleton along with Federal Defenders of New York colleague Tracey Gaffey, said her client suffers from degenerative disc disease and much of the evidence prosecutors intend to present at trial was gathered only after investigators posing as survey researchers paid for her to participate in certain activities.

Javaid said the movie theater screening Middleton went to with her granddaughter was attended with two tickets provided by the government. The cookie baking workshop video prosecutors intend to introduce was shot with a hidden camera worn by an undercover agent who went with her, the defense attorney said.

Middleton was then required to complete a survey after the outings, unknowingly reporting the activities to investigators, Javaid said.

"She wants to do things," the defense attorney said of her client. "She’s still mobile. She still gets around. She’s allowed to live her life."

Job-related injury

Court records show Middleton submitted her first claim for workers’ compensation on Aug. 21, 1997, when she was 44 years old, reporting in a Department of Labor form that she could not report to work due to a lower-back injury sustained on the job.

Miranda said Middleton claimed to have suffered a lumbar sprain bending over to reach a file cabinet.

Middleton began receiving workers’ compensation benefits in November 1997 before returning to the Post Office in a limited capacity nearly 15 months later on Feb. 8, 1999, records show. Miranda said she was limited to answering phones when she went back to work, but claimed she was injured again 10 days later.

Middleton rejected a chance to remain on the job working four hours per day moving letters "from one tray to another," Miranda said. Instead, she received through workers’ compensation two-thirds of her annual salary — about $40,000 per year deposited directly into her personal bank account — for more than two decades, prosecutors said. The criminal charge pertains to alleged false claims made to receive those transferred deposits.

Accused of false claims

Miranda accused Middleton of making false claims to her medical doctor to get him to file annual reports saying she was "totally and permanently disabled" in order to remain out of work.

The prosecutor told the jury video evidence will show Middleton lifting potting soil from the bottom of a shopping cart and placing it in the back of her SUV among other tasks witnessed during the investigation.

Javaid said despite her chronic disability Middleton had to do certain things as a single woman who lived on her own. She said her client also had cancer surgery and operations on her knees, hips and shoulders. She said the medical evidence prosecutors will present will only prove her client's health issues are real.

The defense attorney argued that the evidence compiled by investigators is thin given the length of the investigation.

"Going to the movies one time in seven years is not beyond reasonable doubt," Javaid said, urging the jury to look at the totality of the evidence compiled over "more than 2,000 days" of investigation. "One cooking class ... is not beyond reasonable doubt. It’s just not."

Tuesday’s proceeding was cut short after Middleton appeared to be in distress near the start of witness testimony. She left in an ambulance and it was not immediately clear when testimony would begin again.

Wire fraud, the only charge being considered, carries a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.