| Post Office Employee Who
Opened and Searched Letters in Manhattan Gets
Probation
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Decrypt
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Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Dec 2 – Cesar Vazquez began
working for the US Postal
Service in Manhattan in April
2018. On January 31, 2020 he
was presented on charges of
tampering with, opening and
searching mail in the
Manhattan USPS Processing and
Distribution Center, which
also serves The Bronx.
In the underlying complaint
USPS Special Agent William
Bianco recounts how in October
2019 opened mail was
discovered in a third floor
bathroom of the Processing and
Distribution Center.
Overnight on November 22-23,
Vazquez on Delivery Bar Code
Sorting Machines 22 and 79 was
monitored and
video-surveilled. According to
the complaint he was observed
removing and searching at
least 18 letters.
On January
30, U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New
York Magistrate Judge James L.
Cott signed a sealed complaint
for Vazquez' arrest. On
January 31 Vazquez was brought
shackled before Judge Cott,
who ordered him released
without bond.
Jump cut
to December 2, after months of
COVID pandemic. Vazquez had
pleaded guilty on June 29 and
had been allowed to travel to
California. "It's your life,
not mine," Judge Jed S. Rakoff
told him.
By December 2 the
US Attorney's Office was
asking for zero to six month
of incarceration or just
probation. The latter was
arrived at; no fine.
The case is US v.
Vazquez, 20-cr-154 (Rakoff).
***
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