POSTAL SERVICE EMPLOYEE ADMITS STEALING CELL PHONES FROM MAIL

NEWARK, N.J. – A Hudson County, New Jersey, woman today admitted stealing numerous cell phones from mail that passed through the United States post office where she was employed, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger, announced.

Nyasia Hutchinson, 26, of Jersey City, New Jersey, pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez to an information charging her with one count of theft of mail by a postal employee.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Hutchinson was employed by the U.S. Postal Service as a postal service clerk at the Elizabeth Post Office (EPO). From May 1, 2018, through Dec. 31, 2018, another EPO employee provided Hutchinson with 15 to 20 stolen cellphones that the employee had taken out of packages at the EPO that had been mailed to a Hillside, New Jersey, business. Hutchinson admitted that she taped up empty packages and placed them back in the mail stream after cellphones had been removed. Hutchinson later sold the stolen iPhones which had a total approximate value of $12,000, keeping the sales proceeds for herself.

The theft of mail by a postal employee charge carries a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 31, 2023.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Northeast Area Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Matthew Modafferi, with the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Faye Schwartz of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.

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Defense counsel: Peter Carter Esq., Assistant Federal Public Defender, Newark