Ex-postal worker pleads guilty to mail theft
By MIKE GELLATLY
Staff writer
A former New Ellenton postal worker will face up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine after she pleaded guilty Thursday to charges related to her "routinely" stealing and opening mail.
Denise Larae Key, 43, of New Ellenton, admitted in U.S. District Court in Columbia to theft of mail by a postal employee. U.S. District Judge Margaret B. Seymour accepted the plea and will impose a sentence within a few weeks.
Key, a longtime postal worker, was indicted in February. The indictment charges that in November 2006, Key embezzled items contained within the mail she was entrusted to handle, according to prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office.
According to court documents and evidence presented in court, from November 2006 through November 2007, she routinely opened mail and took out checks, money orders, cash and gift cards.
After being confronted by agents, she stated she could not remember how many pieces of mail she opened or threw away because there were too many to recollect.¬ As for the gift cards, she then either used them herself or gave them to a relative. She was caught after numerous mail customers reported the loss of money, gift cards, greeting cards and receiving opened mail.
Key was identified as the employee pilfering the mail during a sting operation conducted at the New Ellenton post office last November.¬ During the operation, she was observed on tape opening a previously planted pink greeting card. The $10 Target gift card that was enclosed was later used by her relative, as confirmed by store records.¬ According to Key, the relative did not know the source of the gift cards.
The case was investigated by agents of the U.S. Postal Service and the Office of the Inspector General.¬ Assistant U.S. Attorney Winston D. Holliday Jr. of the Columbia office handled the case.
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