Reseda Postmaster Convicted of $6,585 Theft

After a one-day trial, a Reseda postmaster was convicted Tuesday of stealing $6,585 from the post office safe where money from stamp and change machines was kept.

U. S. District Judge Richard A. Gadbois Jr. convicted Joseph Bilotta, 45, of three counts of theft of government property for stealing $6,291 from November, 1986, to March, 1987, and for taking another $294 in March and April.

Gadbois, who presided over the one-day trial without a jury, set sentencing for Aug. 10. Bilotta faces a maximum punishment of 30 years in prison and $750,000 in fines, prosecutor Mark Byrne said.

Denied Taking Money

Bilotta had testified that he never took money, but that he sometimes found the safe open because others who worked with the safe were careless.

Among the six government witnesses who also testified Tuesday was Randy Roberts, a U. S. Postal Service employee who services stamp and change machines at several post offices.

Roberts said he was startled to learn that a routine, quarterly audit March 3 and March 4 showed that the safe was $7,000 short. He said such audits often came up short, but that the shortage is usually accounted for by cash or stamp machine break-ins.

Break-In Reported

During the period being audited, he said, there had been only one such break-in, in which only $1,600 was taken, leaving another $5,400 unaccounted for.

Roberts said he was the only one authorized to know the safe’s combination. But, he said, he occasionally noticed Bilotta, who is now on administrative leave, standing near him when he was about to open the safe.