Record Staff Report
LONDON — The United States Attorney’s Office and the United States Postal Inspection Service jointly announced last week that three more individuals from McCreary County were sentenced January 11 for their roles in a scheme that involved stealing designer bags and reselling them to others and on eBay for profit.
The defendants sold the bags using the internet and shipped them using U.S. Mail to buyers in Twain, Hawaii and California among other locations.
U.S. District Court Judge Amul Thapar sentenced 26-year-old Robert Wayne Dixon, 60-year-old Della Mae Meadows and 28-year-old Richard Lynn Williams II for possessing, purchasing, or receiving stolen goods.
On several occasions in 2007, Williams, along with another co-defendant Brandon Theodore Stephens, broke into the LeSportsac Distribution Center — a warehouse which processed merchandise for shipment to retail outlets and customers — in Stearns and stole at least 2,100 bags worth more than $300,000.
Stephens and Will-iams went to the warehouse via a trail Williams cut between the building and his house, and broke in by climbing on the roof and sneaking in through an upstairs window. Stephens was a former employee for LeSportsac and was released by the company for a purpose unrelated to the scheme.
The men stored the bags at the residence Williams shared with his wife, Misty Lynn Williams. They sold nearly 1,000 LeSportsac bags to co-defendant Kimberly Chambers, who supplied the bags to other co-defendants — including Christy Baird (Mea-dows’ daughter), who sold them on eBay. Chambers also sold bags on eBay. Other bags were sold to Bonnie Lay who resold the goods online with assistance from Sandra Kidd. Still others were sold on eBay by Mrs. Williams herself and her brother, Robert Wayne Dixon.
A total of eight defendants, all from McCreary County, received the following sentences thus far:
• Brandon Stephens, 27 – 17 months
• Richard Lynn Williams II, 28 – 17 months
• Christy M. Baird, 27 – 17 months
• Della Mae Meadows, 60 – 12 months
• Robert Wayne Dixon, 26 – 5 years probation
• Misty Lynn Williams, 29 - 5 years probation, 6 months home detention
• Sandra K. Kidd, 40 – 5 years probation
• Bonnie L. Lay, 37 – 5 years probation.
Lay, Meadows and Kidd also once worked for LeSportsac when the company actually manufactured bags in Stearns.
Under federal law the defendants must serve 85 percent of their prison sentence.
U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar dismissed the charges against Brandi N. Chambers last September as part of her sister Kim Chambers’ plea agreement. Kim Chambers apparently used Brandi Chambers’ name and bank account to sell the stolen bags. Kim Chambers had been scheduled to be sentenced on January 11 as well but Judge Thapar determined that another hearing was needed to determine how much restitution she is responsible for. Her sentencing has been scheduled for this Thursday afternoon in Lexington.
The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the McCreary County Sheriff’s Office.
