The former postmaster of the Birmingham post office was sentenced Friday to one year of probation on a federal embezzlement charge.

Trudy Wright also was ordered by a federal judge in Toledo to pay $1,000 in restitution to the U.S. Postal Service.

Wright had served as the postmaster in Birmingham until the post office there was destroyed in a March 2009 fire that also destroyed Boccardi’s Pizza & Pasta, which had been housed in the building.

Investigators believe the fire, which caused more than $500,000 in damage, started in an electrical junction box in the ceiling of the post office.

Wright was removed from her position as a postal service employee in November 2009 and was indicted on the embezzlement charge in March of this year.

The Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General said that Wright wrote an illegal money order worth $1,000 without paying for it in March 2009 and used the money to pay for personal expenses.

The illegal money order was discovered, along with other financial discrepancies, during a routine audit, according to investigators.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

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