UNION, NJ — A former U.S. Postal Service mail carrier has been convicted of bribery, fraud and conspiracy charges, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced on Tuesday, Aug. 20.
Emerson Pavilus, 49, of Union, was convicted on Thursday, Aug. 15, on all three counts of an indictment charging him with receiving bribes as a public official, conspiring to defraud the United States and conspiring to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances. The jury returned the verdict following a trial before U.S. Circuit Court Judge Stephanos Bibas, sitting by designation in the U.S. District Court for the district of New Jersey.
According to documents filed in this case and the evidence presented at trial, Pavilus was a mail carrier at the post office in Flanders. From at least 2015 to 2020, Pavilus received cash payments in exchange for helping individuals intercept packages containing illegal narcotics and other illicit materials. Pavilus provided his conspirators with addresses for vacant houses along his mail route to which they could ship illegal packages. Pavilus then intercepted those packages from the mail stream and personally delivered them to his conspirators, in exchange for bribe payments at places other than the addresses listed on the packages.
The bribery charge is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain from the offense, or three times the monetary equivalent of the bribe amount, whichever is greatest. The conspiracy to defraud the United States charge carries a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain from the offense, whichever is greater. The narcotics offense carries a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.