OGDEN — Beating on a mailbox can get complicated.
Enrique Gallardo, 21, has found that out since his March 3 arrest. Police came across him walking along Wall Avenue about 4 a.m. that day, drunk, carrying a load of mail.
“None of the mail had his name or address on it,” Ogden Officer Chris Edwards wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
Stopped at 2nd Street and Wall Avenue, the intoxicated Gallardo had mail from four addresses spread along the five blocks behind him on Wall.
His intentions weren’t immediately clear because of his slurred speech, according to reports of officers responding to calls of a drunk walking home and banging on mailboxes of individual residences that morning.
All of the pieces of mail were returned to their rightful owners.
Gallardo was initially charged with multiple counts of class A misdemeanor mail theft, plus criminal mischief and intoxication, B and C misdemeanors respectively.
In a plea bargain in 2nd District Court, the charges were reduced to two counts of class A misdemeanor damage to a mail receptacle and intoxication, to which Gallardo pleaded guilty.
Simple assault on a human is typically a class B misdemeanor but can be upgraded to a more serious class A, or even felony status, if injuries are severe.
Punching out a mailbox is considered more serious because it involves disrupting the federal postal service. The damage Gallardo inflicted on two mailboxes exceeded $500 in both cases, according to charging documents.
Eight months after the mailbox attacks, Gallardo is back in jail, technically still serving time for the postal provocations.
Sentenced for them in July, he has had several probation violations since, court records show, some still pending in 2nd District Court. Those could invoke the original one-year jail term he received for the mail mess, suspended at the time to 30 days.
With a “Live Fast Die Young” moniker among his several tattoos, Gallardo was arrested in August and charged with being a minor in possession of alcohol. He was still 20 years old at the time.
While that case was filed in Ogden Justice Court and resulted in a fine, the arrest violated the terms of Gallardo’s probation in 2nd District Court for the mailbox beatings, leading to a short stay in Weber County Jail.
And this month, he was returned to the jail on two more alleged probation violations. He is currently held without bail.
Gallardo’s probation officer has filed affidavits accusing Gallardo of methamphetamine use on Nov. 14 and alcohol consumption on Nov. 16.
Gallardo has denied the allegations, with a Dec. 12 hearing scheduled before 2nd District Judge W. Brent West.
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