Postal Supervisor Sentenced to Jail in Embezzlement

An Encino postal supervisor pleaded no contest Tuesday to embezzling $120 from a supposedly lost wallet entrusted in his care in a sting operation, authorities said.

Steven Ross Parker, 48, of Reseda, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days in jail and two years’ probation by Van Nuys Municipal Judge Karen Nudell. Parker is expected to begin serving his sentence Aug. 28, said Deputy City Atty. Don Cocek.

“He didn’t want to go to trial, and that is what he was offered,” said Parker’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Phil Boche.

Parker, an employee at the White Oak post office in Encino, was charged with one count each of embezzlement and theft. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, while investigating thefts of money from sales of stamps and postal merchandise at the White Oak post office, placed $120 in identifiable bills in a wallet and reported it missing to a postal clerk.

An inspector gave the wallet to the clerk, who turned it over to Parker, according to a police report.

Parker kept the wallet for about an hour, then gave it to a registry clerk to be sent to the post office claims section. Inspectors checked the wallet and the money was gone. They found the missing money--two $50 bills and a $20 bill--on Parker, the report stated.