Brooklyn mail carrier arrested for destroying and holding mail

May 9, 2017 By Paul Frangipane Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Brooklyn federal courthouse. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

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A Brooklyn mail carrier faces up to five years in prison after he was arrested and brought to federal court on Monday on charges that he allegedly held, destroyed and delayed thousands of pieces of mail over a two-year period, according to a U.S. Postal Service inspector general officer.

Between June 2015 and April 19, 2017, Vincent R. Holder Jr. allegedly sat on around 2,800 pieces of mail, “by a conservative estimate,” according to Ana Bourdon, special agent of the USPS and officer of the inspector general in an affidavit.

Bourdon wrote in the affidavit that on April 16, the post office received a tip that there was undelivered mail in a dumpster in front of 486 Empire Blvd. in Crown Heights. When law enforcement agents inspected the claim, they found nine full garbage bags of mail sitting in the dumpster.

Holder, 29, is out on $50,000 bail and is awaiting indictment with a possibility of five years in prison. He was arrested on charges of “knowingly and unlawfully” destroying, detaining and delaying pieces of mail.

Holder was employed at the Rugby Station post office in East Flatbush between April 2015 and Oct. 2016 before he transferred to the Bath Beach Station. About six months later, a total of 11 garbage bags filled with mail were found in the Crown Heights dumpster, nine on April 16 and two more on April 19.

In a statement to the Office of the Inspector General on April 19, Holder said he did not deliver the mail for “personal reasons,” and it was kept in the trunk of his personal vehicle and his home while he was working at the Rugby Station. Many of the articles of mail were intended for residents and businesses in Brooklyn.

Holder is being defended by Amanda David of the Federal Defenders and prosecuted by Craig Heeren.

David refused to provide comment.