Jan 10, 2007 9:31 am US/Mountain
2 Colo. Carriers Charged With Throwing Away Mail
by Rick Sallinger
BROOMFIELD, Colo. (CBS4) ―
The federal government charged two postal carriers in Colorado with throwing away thousands of pieces of mail in two separate cases.
"In both cases, we had members of the general public find discarded mail in trash receptacles," said David Montoya, Office of Inspector General.
One of the accused worked out of the main post office in Broomfield for the past 5 years.
Jason Romero was charged with discarding 748 pieces of mail including passports, treasury checks and birth certificates.
"We take it very seriously in the post office," Montoya said. "It is our bread and butter. It is the sanctity of the mail that we're talking about and these are federal criminal violations."
The second case involved a contract postal carrier in Aspen.
Vickie Ann Walker was charged with dumping 1,436 pieces of mail including 91 that were first class items.
Walker said she meant to throw away bulk mail, but not first class items, according to court documents.
"It's probably less than one-tenth of one percent of postal employees that are involved with any kind of tampering or theft of the mail," said Al DeSarro, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.
Both workers have been fired. The mail in both cases was never delivered.
Each of the accused faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
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