NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

MATT J. WHITWORTH

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

IRS EMPLOYEE PLEADS GUILTY TO STEALING MAIL

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Matt J. Whitworth, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that an IRS employee pleaded guilty in federal court today to stealing mail that had been delivered to the IRS service facility on Pershing Road.

Latrice Antionette Murray, 38, of Kansas City, Mo., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple this afternoon to the charges contained in a Sept. 8, 2009, federal indictment.

Murray was employed at the IRS facility at 333 W. Pershing Road, Kansas City, Mo., where her duties included mail processing. Murray admitted that she rifled through misdirected and/or misdelivered mail, and then removed and stole cash and gift cards from the mail. Murray admitted that she stole mail on each of the five different dates between Feb. 9 and April 9, 2009, specified in each separate count of the indictment.

As a batch of incoming mail is sorted for delivery to various individuals at the Pershing Road facility, some mail is identified as misdirected or misdelivered mail and is placed in a mail bucket so it can be returned to the Postal Service for delivery to the intended addressee. Based on reports that misdelivered mail was being opened rather than being returned to the Postal Service, a hidden video surveillance camera was installed in the administrative mail room. The video taken by the hidden surveillance camera confirmed that Murray rifled through the misdelivered mail, opened it, and took contents from the mail.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gene Porter. It was investigated by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

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