A plea agreement has been offered in the case of Lake Havasu City’s former postmaster, as she awaits a new hearing in Lake Havasu Municipal court on nine misdemeanor counts of shoplifting.
At a Thursday hearing, attorneys for 67-year-old Deborah Tinnell requested a continuance as negotiations as to a possible plea agreement continue. Defense attorneys said at that time that they do not expect the case to end in a criminal trial.
The details of any potential plea agreement in the case were not made public this week, but Tinnell may decide whether to accept such an agreement at her next hearing on Feb. 27.
The case began Dec. 12, following an investigation by the Lake Havasu City Police Department into multiple alleged shoplifting incidents at Havasu’s Walmart location. Investigators say those incidents spanned from Oct. 25 to Dec. 11, during which Tinnell allegedly failed to scan items at the store’s self-checkout kiosk, and may have swapped UPC barcodes between cheaper products and more expensive goods to pay less than those items’ intended value.
