After a substitute postmaster took over last winter, some people in Harrisburg began to notice that they weren't getting all their mail. Federal agents say it's because she was throwing it away, and now she's in trouble with the U.S. government.

Elizabeth T. Simonian, 49, is accused in federal court of pitching mail into the trash at the post office in May. Some of her customers say she was fed up with the way the mail was addressed.

Simonian is also the elected clerk-treasurer in the southern Franklin County village of about 326 people. She was arrested at her home yesterday morning on a charge that carries a penalty of up to five years in prison if she's convicted.

Two village residents found 133 pieces of mail in garbage bags in the Dumpster behind the post office on May 7, a special agent of the Postal Service's Office of the Inspector General said in court papers.

The Postal Service hired Simonian, of 1088 Sycamore St. in Harrisburg, as the village's temporary postmaster in December and fired her on July 13, said Fred Alverson, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Columbus.

After Simonian took the job, residents noticed that mail was missing, said Fred Eiginger, one of the men who found the discarded mail.

"Residents weren't receiving their bills," he said.

His wife, Carol, told postal agents that Simonian threatened to throw away the Eigingers' mail.

Simonian had complained that some mail did not include a post office box number, Mr. Eiginger said today.

In Harrisburg, people pick up their mail in boxes assigned to them at the post office. But Eiginger said some agencies, such as credit-card companies, do not put the box number on the mail, using just the house address.

"Her comment was, 'You people have been getting away with this for too long, and I'm not letting you get away with it,' " he said.

Eiginger said he has lived in the village for 22 years and never had any problems with his mail until Simonian began working at the post office.

Simonian told postal agents she threw away only mail that was not deliverable or that had been left at the post office with no forwarding address. She did not return phone calls seeking comment for this story.

The charge against Simonian, destruction of mail by a postal employee, carries a penalty ranging from a fine to five years in prison, Alverson said. The severity of the crime would depend on the value of the mail destroyed, he said.

Simonian appeared in U.S. District Court in Columbus this morning and was released without being required to post bail.

Harrisburg voters elected Simonian as clerk-treasurer in 2003 in an uncontested race. Her term ends this year and she doesn't plan to seek the position again, said April Porter, Harrisburg council president.

dcaruso@dispatch.com