AKRON, Ohio – Bruce C. Murdock, Jr., 54, of Massillon, Ohio, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge John R. Adams to six months in prison and was ordered to pay $8,346.96 in restitution and a $20,000 fine after Murdock pleaded guilty to delay or destruction of mail and theft of mail by a postal service employee.
According to court documents, from February 2021 to April 2022, Murdock was employed in the United States Postal Service (USPS) as a West Area Post Office Operation Manager (POOM), which is a high-level position that manages multiple Post Office locations. As a POOM, court records state that Murdock was able to remove parcels of mail from the mail stream prior to a scanning process that marked the mail as delivered to the Massillon Post Office. This avoided the parcels from being labeled as “lost” at the Massillon Post Office.
Court documents go on to state that during this period, federal authorities with the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS OIG) observed Murdock remove parcels from the mail stream every day that he was in the office. After removing a parcel from the mail stream, Murdock was observed taking the parcel(s) back to his office, where he kept materials for repackaging. In some instances, Murdock would return the parcel to the mail stream. On other occasions, he would not.
During the sentencing hearing, Judge Adams said of Murdock that his “actions cast aspersions on all the good, hardworking thousands and thousands of postal employees around the country who try to do the right thing.”
Court records state that due to Murdock’s position as POOM, and access to the mail before it was scanned, authorities were unable to determine a total loss amount, nor a total number of victims impacted during their investigation.
The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by the USPS OIG and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Egan.