Ex-Clerk Is Convicted of Shredding INS Records
A federal jury in Santa Ana on Wednesday convicted a former INS contract clerical worker of two counts of destruction of government documents for shredding paperwork to reduce a backlog and protect his job.
Leonel Salazar, 34, was acquitted of three other counts of destruction and a conspiracy charge. He faces up to six years in prison when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Alicemarie Stotler on April 12, Assistant U.S. Atty. Gregory Staples told City News Service.
Prosecutors said Salazar, a former file room senior supervisor at the Immigration and Naturalization Service office in Laguna Niguel -- now known as the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services -- shredded the papers to reduce a 90,000-document backlog and save his job.
The documents included passports, birth and marriage certificates and other vital records of immigrants that were supposed to be attached to active files, according to trial testimony.
Salazar was accused of conspiring with Dawn Randall, assistant manager of the file room, but the jury acquitted him of that count.
Randall is scheduled to be tried March 16 on the same charges of conspiracy and five counts of destruction of documents.
Defense attorneys for Salazar could not be reached for comment. But they argued at trial that Salazar believed the paperwork amounted to non-essential records that usually would be destroyed to hide personal information such as names.
The shredding began in February 2002 and came to light on April 4 that year, when INS officials discovered two file room clerks disposing of unprocessed documents during an evening shift, according to the indictment returned in October 2002.
Randall worked for Datatrac Information Services, and Salazar worked for SEI Technology, two private companies hired by the INS to file applications for permanent residency, citizenship, work visas and family reunification.
The Laguna Niguel office handles paperwork for an area that includes Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii and Nevada.
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