Slaton contractor sorter who stole checks, mail sentenced in federal court
U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix told a 22-year-old Slaton man on Tuesday that his cowardly actions threatened the lives and health of thousands of people when he stole thousands of pieces of mail at a sorting facility to support his drug addiction.
"You hurt a lot of people," Hendrix told Joe Roy Rivas, before sentencing him to more than four years in prison. "The damage done is immeasurable."
Rivas faced up to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty in December to a count of conspiracy to possess stolen mail.
A pre-sentencing report by a federal probation officer provided the court a recommended punishment range of 46 to 57 months in federal prison.
Hendrix sentenced him to 57 months in federal prison along with a $5,000 fine.
He admitted to stealing more than $4 million in checks while he worked as a sorter for Cargo Force, a company contracted to sort mail for the U.S. Postal service at the Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport. The stolen mail contained more than $4 million worth of checks.
Among the stolen checks were a $25,728 check made payable to a telecom co-op, a $15,000 check to a consulting group, and a $241,863 check to a facilities management and food services company, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Rivas' co-defendant, 35-year-old Jessica Lynn Solomon, also pleaded guilty to the same charge and is set to be sentenced on April 21.
Rivas' defense attorney, Michael King, told the court that the case against his client, while technically a theft case, was a drug case, saying his client was compelled by his addiction to methamphetamine.
"Everything that was being stolen was funneled to his drug addiction," he said.
He asked the court to consider his client's negligible criminal history and argued that a sentence on the lower end of the range was appropriate. He said his client recognizes the gravity of his actions and
However, Hendrix said Rivas' crime, despite being his first brush with the law, was a serious offense that impacted the lives of thousands of people.
"He went pretty high when he went for his first one," Hendrix said .
Rivas was initially under investigation in 2019 when law enforcement learned that Rivas, Solomon and other employees sold cell phones stolen from mail sorted by Cargo Force.
Rivas admitted to selling 14 phones that a co-worker gave him but said he was unaware they were stolen.
However, investigators spoke with another employee found with several stolen checks that had been "washed" and forged with the name of another payee. The employee told investigators that Rivas and Solomon had "a stockpile of stolen mail " in the home they shared in Slaton.
Investigators searched the home and found more than 8,000 pieces of mail stored in five, 55-gallon trash bags.
Rivas admitted that he conspired with Solomon to steal all the mail found in the home while they were working.
Prosecutor Anne Howey described Rivas' actions as nothing less than an attack on the U.S. Postal system and the national and local economy. She said he showed an absolute disregard for the impact his crime had on people.
She told the court that more than 8,000 pieces of mail found in the home were pilfered between Feb. 23-27, 2021. However, she said Rivas admitted to investigators that he began stealing mail when he started working for the company in the Spring of 2019 and would burn the evidence.
Howey estimated that Rivas likely stole more than 50,000 pieces of mail in that time period, with countless people suffering.
"Just staggering," she said. "Of course, we'll never know the actual amount."
The mail recovered in Riva' home showed he also stole checks meant for charities, utilities, funeral homes, IRS payments, mortgage payments and bankruptcy remittance payments.
His actions also interfered with the delivery of applications to local colleges and universities and greeting cards, Howey said.
Howey said her office was in communication with the Lubbock Central Appraisal District as officials there were concerned about penalizing homeowners for non-payment.
Hendrix told Rivas that he acknowledged the role his drug addiction played in his crime but that he still needed to face the consequences of his actions.
"It doesn't really matter why," Hendrix told Rivas.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Slaton postal sorter who admitted to stealing checks, mail sentenced
