Postal Inspection Service renews violence-prevention efforts
Filed under: postal, postal inspectors, postal news, USPS News Link
The Postal Inspection Service’s Safe and Secure Initiative continues to educate employees on avoiding violence in the workplace.
Postal Inspector Robert Diaz — the initiative’s program manager — said Inspectors will visit approximately 400 postal facilities over the next two months to address the issues of workplace violence, employee security and carrier safety.
Inspectors will hold face-to-face discussions with employees and distribute safety brochures about violence prevention. Key points include:
- Take every threat seriously and report it immediately.
- Behave in a way that promotes a positive work environment.
- Act in a professional manner, even if you’re having a bad day.
- Report all threats to management officials, your Threat Assessment Team or the Postal Inspection Service.
The Safe and Secure Initiative is a key element in the Postal Service’s zero-tolerance policy for workforce violence. Employees who feel threatened also should contact the Employee Assistance Program — which provides crisis counseling, referral and short-term counseling — at 800-327-4968 (TTY, 877-492-7341).
via USPS News Link
EEO Complaint Alleges Postal Police Officers Denied USPS Paid Benefit Offered To Postal Inspectors
Filed under: eeo, postal, postal inspectors, postal news, postal police, usps
Did USPS properly addressed a Postal Police Officer’s class claim allegation that she was discriminated against because the USPS does not offer self-referral counseling to its Postal Police Officers?
In a complaint dated June 22, 2008, a Postal Police Officer (PPO) in USPS’s Los Angeles Post Office in Pasadena, California maintained that she was subjected to discrimination on the bases of race, national origin, sex (female), religion, color, disability, age, and reprisal for prior protected EEO activity [under Title VII] when, on April 15, 2008, she was made aware that Postal Inspectors are provided with self-referral counseling, which she alleges, has a disparate impact on Postal Police Officers nationwide. The PPO explained that she experienced job related P.T.S.D., when she returned to duty after a near fatal job-related car accident, and had to utilize public health care facilities through her HMO. However the program offered to Postal Inspectors is paid for by USPS. The PPO is seeking a class complaint concerning this issue. Read more
Man Indicted on Charge Of Biting US Postal Inspector
Filed under: postal, postal inspectors, postal news, press releases, usdoj
ROCHESTER, N.Y.– (June 24, 2011) U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that a federal grand jury has indicted Mark Joseph Rossel, 52, of Rush, New York, on a charge of assaulting a federal officer and inflicting bodily injury. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Field, who is handling the case, stated that according to the Indictment, on May 12, 2011, the defendant attacked a United States Postal Inspector. The Indictment alleges that Rossel bit the inspector, causing punctured wounds.
The Indictment is the culmination of an investigation by the United States Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Robert Bethel and Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, under the direction of Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn.
The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
source: United States Attorney’s Office, Western District Of New York
Postal Inspector, Paralegal Charged With Perjury and Obstruction Of Justice
Filed under: postal inspectors, postal news, press releases, usps
Postal Inspector charged with perjury; allegedly lied about relationship with paralegal
BOSTON, Mass. – A federal postal inspector and a former law firm paralegal have been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice.
On May 10, 2011, JOSEPH M. McGONAGLE, III, 37, of Danvers and MELANIE M. ABBRUZZESE, 31, were charged in federal court in a two count indictment with perjury and obstruction of justice. The indictments allege that on May 19, 2010, McGONAGLE and ABBRUZZESE testified falsely under oath in a court hearing that took place before United States District Judge George A. O’Toole, Jr. Read more
U.S. Postal Inspection Service Awards AED Contract to Cardiac Science
Powerheart AEDs to be deployed nationwide
BOTHELL, Wash., Feb. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Cardiac Science Corporation, a global leader in automated external defibrillator (AED) and diagnostic cardiac monitoring devices, has been awarded a contract to deploy Powerheart® AEDs at U.S. Postal Inspection Service sites across the nation. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is the primary law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service.
“We are proud to have been selected to protect the men and women of the Postal Inspection Service,” said Dave Marver, Cardiac Science president and chief executive officer.
The Powerheart AED’s RescueCoach™ user-paced voice prompts and CPR metronome guide rescuers confidently through a stressful rescue situation. The Powerheart AED G3 Plus delivers a shock automatically with no button to push and no human intervention. After the shock, the Powerheart AED instructs users how to perform high-quality CPR.
About Sudden Cardiac Arrest
Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in North America, claiming more than 365,000 lives each year. It’s estimated that more than 95 percent of cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital. In cardiac arrest, the heart’s electrical impulses fire irregularly and the heart cannot pump blood to the rest of the body. A defibrillator is the only effective therapy for sudden cardiac arrest. It provides a life-saving shock to effectively restart the heart’s electrical impulses.
USPS Employee Alert: Report Mail From Yemen To Postal Inspectors
Filed under: postal, postal inspectors, postal news, usps, USPS News Link
Due to recent events involving packages shipped from Yemen by private courier companies, the Postal Service has temporarily suspended acceptance of inbound international mail originating from that country.
This service suspension has been issued in response to the potential threat posed by suspicious packages originating in Yemen.
To ensure the safety and security of postal employees and the American public, the Postal Inspection Service is requesting assistance from all USPS employees — in particular those in mail processing and delivery operations.
Postal employees are asked to identify and hold any mail that appears to have originated in Yemen. This mail could have a Yemeni return address, postmark or postage. If any mail originating from Yemen is discovered, employees are asked to notify their supervisor and immediately contact the Postal Inspection Service at 877-876-2455 (Option 2). A Postal Inspector will respond to the facility and conduct a risk assessment of the mailpiece.
It is important to note the Postal Service has not received any information indicating this mail is dangerous. These precautionary measures are being taken to protect USPS employees, customers and the mail.
The Postal Inspection Service is monitoring the situation and working with other federal law enforcement agencies to ensure the safety of everyone associated with the U.S. Mail.
source: USPS News Link
Why OIG And Postal Inspectors Can’t Prosecute Postal Execs??
Filed under: oig, postal, postal inspectors, postal news, usps
Confessions of a Former Postal Station Manager – Congressional Response
by Guy Nohrenberg
Surely your boss would never falsify or engage in fraud or schemes in order to get undeserved raises and bonuses. If they did, there is section of Federal Law called Title 18, which includes criminal penalties such as fines, and imprisonment of up to 5 years. It’s enforced too! Enforced, only, however, against Letter Carriers and craft personnel. So when a Letter Carrier engages in falsification or fraud, they’re out the door.
What about Executives?
Title 18 actually pertains to Executives!
This is where the problem lies. The Office of Inspector General and the US Postal Inspection Service do not pursue prosecution against Executives. Why? Because the OIG and USPSIS report to the Executives. There is no external unprejudiced Law Enforcement group that deals with such issues within the US Postal Service.
Now, I’m not saying all Executives are bad. In every organization, however, there are a few bad apples. Some are in very powerful positions. In my over 25 years of working in the US Postal Service I can testify to the fact that I have met hundreds of hard working good honest bosses. (Whether we carriers want to admit that or not). What happens,
though to the tiny percentage of Executives who do engage in criminal falsifications, fraud, or schemes? Can you really see an OIG agent asking to investigate his boss? Not his OIG boss, but the boss he reports to in the Operations part of the US Postal Service.
Ask yourself, too, why you’ve never heard of big bosses doing time for fraud or schemes other than financial theft. Have you ever wondered why you read in the news about people in Executive positions getting away with things a hundred times worse than you’ve gotten your last Letter of Warning for?
Well, I take real issue with it. A friend of mine, today, called me. I was told of some fraudulent activity that was going on and asked what they had done about it. The friend laughed and said, “What. So I can end up like YOU?”
Recently I wrote to my congressman. You should too! It’s easy, and it’s our right to do so. I wanted to know what he was doing about possible ethical and criminal violations within the US Postal Service. You can read my letter to him here:
Well. He responded.
Visit The Letter Carrier Connection full article (PDF).
Letter Carrier’s Creative Defense Fails To Overturn Mail Theft Conviction
California letter carrier Henry Lee Monday appealed his conviction for stealing $40 from a “test letter” planted by Postal Inspectors, claiming he wasn’t going to keep the money. Here are excerpts from the case:
Henry Lee Monday appeals his conviction by a jury of violating 18 U.S.C. § 1709, which, in pertinent part, provides felony penalties for a United States Postal Service employee entrusted with mail who “steals, abstracts, or removes from any such letter, package, bag, or mail, any article or thing contained therein . . . .” Monday does not dispute the essential facts of the case, which establish that, while delivering mail as a Postal Service letter carrier, he opened a letter containing a birthday card, removed $40 in cash from the card, and used a portion of those funds to purchase snack food from a liquor store. Monday’s sole contention is that the district court erred in refusing to instruct the jury that, to convict, the government was required to prove that Monday had the specific intent permanently to deprive the owner of the money that he removed.
We conclude that the statute, in prohibiting Postal Employees from removing contents from mailed items, contains no such specific intent requirement. We therefore affirm Monday’s conviction.
BACKGROUND
A factual twist in this case is that the incriminating letter was a “test letter” placed in the mail by postal inspectors who were conducting an investigation of Monday for mail theft. At trial, Monday attempted to turn this fact to his advantage by testifying that he “knew the letter was a ‘plant’ ” but opened it “because [he] had a lot of things on [his] mind that [he] had wanted to discuss with the postal inspectors, and [he] figured at that time that they would come and arrest [him] or do what they had to do so [he] could talk to them.” He stated that he did not intend to steal the money. Had the district court instructed the jury that conviction required proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Monday “intended to permanently deprive” the Government of its money, as Monday proposed, this rather novel defense might at least have made theoretical sense. Under the instruction actually given by the court, however, the only mental element that the Government had to prove was that Monday took the money “knowing that it belonged to someone else,” a fact to which Monday had already attested.
Conclusion
Monday was properly convicted of removing money from a mailed letter in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1709. That offense does not include an element of specific intent permanently to deprive the owner of the money of its property. The district court accordingly did not err in refusing to instruct the jury on that element. The judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
Here is the full decision- United States of America v. Henry Lee Monday, Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California
U.S. Postal Inspection Service Launches Employee Security Initiative
Based on the commitment that no employee should have to work in an atmosphere of fear or intimidation, the Postal Service has a zero-tolerance policy for workplace violence. This applies regardless of where postal employees perform their duties.
To renew this commitment to employees, USPS and the Postal Inspection Service have launched a security initiative — combining their resources to ensure that employees are aware of steps they can take to avoid becoming a victim of violence, whether on the street (Link, 4/20) or working inside a postal facility (Link, 4/1).
According to Chief Postal Inspector Guy Cottrell, the initiative targets workplace violence at all levels before it escalates to violence — a focus that has proven to be the most effective. This involves Postal Inspectors meeting face to face with employees and supervisors on a broad range of security and crime-prevention messages.
“By ensuring that low-level incidents like threatening remarks and other forms of non-physical intimidation are treated seriously, we can avoid the escalation in violence that sometimes follows,” says Cottrell, explaining that Inspectors conducting assault prevention presentations will provide brochures, emergency contact cards and other items to employees.
The Postal Service also has resources available to employees and supervisors to help them deal with problems at work and at home. The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides assessment, referral, and short-term counseling. Postal employees and their families can call the EAP service center at 800-327-4968. For TTY, call 877-492-7341. The service center is available 24 hours a day.
source: USPS News Link – August 2, 2010.
PMG Names New Chief Postal Inspector
PMG Jack Potter has named Guy Cottrell the 38th chief inspector of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. He begins his new assignment Aug. 1.
A 23-year postal employee, Cottrell has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of New Orleans. He most recently served as deputy chief inspector, where he was responsible for USPS national security programs.
In 1987, Cottrell began his postal career as a letter carrier in New Orleans. In 1990, he became a Postal Inspector in the New Orleans Division, where he investigated internal and external mail theft in Louisiana and southern Mississippi. He has held a number of supervisory positions in various major metropolitan areas, including management of the Inspection Service’s Washington field office during much of the 2001 anthrax investigations.
In 2008, Cottrell was named inspector in charge of the Security and Crime Prevention/Communications group. In that position, he guided the Inspection Service toward a risk and management analysis platform and streamlined security-related programs. His group produced several internal and external security and crime prevention publications and videos and also created a new Postal Inspection Service website.
Cottrell also will serve as chairman of the Universal Postal Union’s Postal Security Group.
source: USPS News Link