The Berkeley postal carrier who was arrested Saturday, after he allegedly yelled threatening comments and entered the home of a man on his route, went on the offensive Thursday and claimed the accusations are false and that he is a victim of “delivering while black.”
LaMonte Earnest, 44, who has worked for the U.S. Postal Service for more than 12 years, and his wife, Kate Hallinan, a member of one of the Bay Area’s most prominent radical lawyering families, sent out a press release offering a different view of the incident that took place Saturday around 4:30 p.m. in the 2600 block of Sacramento Street. The couple said the U.S. Coast Guard veteran, who is black, wants to “clear his good name and restore his reputation which has been so terribly maligned.”
The Sacramento Street resident told Berkeleyside on Thursday that he was home cleaning when there was a loud “bang” on his door that frightened him. He said he thought maybe a bird had crashed into it. When he looked outside, he saw an Amazon package of books he had ordered.