By CHARLIE BERMANT
Peninsula Daily News

TACOMA — A pre-sentencing letter from the man who pleaded guilty to stealing more than 1,000 pounds of mail last year includes statements of remorse for his actions while mentioning his background and childhood as factors that contributed to his criminal behavior.

“At the age of 12, my parents were divorced and I was sent to live with my dad,” wrote Adam J. Lysiak in a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Leighton prior to the Feb. 28 sentencing hearing in which he was given more than four years in prison.

“I was instantly thrown into the role of ‘drinking buddy’ as the town we lived in was very small and no one liked partying with my dad because of his meanness,” wrote Lysiak, 39.

Leighton sentenced Lysiak to 51 months in prison on one count each of bank fraud, possession of stolen mail and aggravated identity theft. He had pleaded guilty to the three counts in November.

Mail was reported stolen from Kitsap and Jefferson counties, which included Poulsbo and Bainbridge Island.

Upon his release, he will be placed under supervision for three years.

Lysiak’s plea agreement requires him to make restitution to three financial institutions: $300 to Wells Fargo, $283 to Department Stores National Bank and $427 to American Express.

Restitution in the amount of $1,979 to an individual identified only as J.M. also was specified, while other victims may put forth restitution requests, according to the plea agreement.

Lysiak was arrested by Port Townsend police Feb. 12, 2013, at his Port Townsend apartment in possession of several bags of stolen mail as well as laptops, a safe and a 2-ton floor jack.

Lysiak stole mail and used the victims’ names to create identities, creating fake driver’s licenses with his own picture and using these identities to cash bogus checks and purchase gift cards, police said.

Police spent several weeks processing the evidence, sorting them in envelopes for each victim and boxes for each ZIP code.

The evidence remains at the Port Townsend police station and will be picked up by the U.S. Postal Service for return to those it belongs to, but no date has been set for that transfer, according to Port Townsend Detective Jason Greenspane.

In his three-page handwritten letter, Lysiak said that when his father became too abusive, he began running away and ended up living on the streets, saying, “All I learned in my childhood was how to drink and do drugs and I carried this over to my adult life.”

After his father’s death, Lysiak returned to the care of his mother, who helped him find a job, which he lost after he was in an accident in a company vehicle that he did not report, he wrote.

“I handled the situation all wrong and it cost me my job,” he wrote.

“That job was everything to me, it made me ‘somebody’ after all these years and I backslid into drugs again.”

He also resumed a life of crime.

“I just gave up,” he wrote.

“It was devastating to get a taste of the good, clean life and lose it again,” he said.

Lysiak wrote that he would like to take part in drug treatment and vocational training during his incarceration, specifically furniture refinishing.

“I intend to make the most out of a bad situation and come out of here a much better person,” he wrote.

“I wish to express my sincere apologies and remorse for my actions [and] will do anything and everything I can I can to make up for the things I’ve done and the people I’ve wronged.”