Fresno man admitted to stealing nearly $20,000 from Healdsburg Post Office, authorities say

A Fresno man who was charged in federal court this week admitted to officials that he stole nearly $20,000 from the Healdsburg Post Office since December, according to an affidavit filed by an inspector with the U.S. Postal Service.

Christopher Ernest Rocha, 50, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of theft of public money. The arrest comes after an investigation by postal inspector Nicholas Hamner, who suspected that Rocha had been stealing from mailbags from the Healdsburg Post Office since December.

Rocha, a driver for a trucking company that supplies transportation services for USPS, collected mailbags from the Healdsburg Post Office that contained all or most of the proceeds from the office’s retail transactions that day, including cash, checks and money orders. On some days, the bag also contained registered mail sent by USPS customers.

But during his investigation, Hamner found that on at least six occasions over the past six weeks - Dec. 9, 10, 12 and 30 and Jan. 10 and 15 - Rocha failed to deliver mailbags he collected from the office to a USPS processing and distribution center in San Francisco, according to the affidavit.

Based on that discovery, Hamner went to the Healdsburg Post Office on Tuesday and took photos of the checks and bills before they were put inside the mailbag. Then, other inspectors observed Rocha as he took custody of the bag and drove to Santa Rosa, where he discarded a torn USPS remittance pouch, in which the postal service sometimes stores cash that is being transferred.

The inspectors followed Rocha as he drove to the center in San Francisco, where they then arrested him. When searching Rocha’s truck, Hamner found $5,000 in cash, all of which matched the serial numbers that he had photographed earlier that day in Healdsburg.

In an interview with the authorities, Rocha admitted that he took the cash inside the bag Tuesday, and had done so on at least three other occasions, according to the affidavit. He estimated that he stole about $18,000, which he used to pay bills, party with friends in Fresno, buy drugs and buy a Corvette.

He also said he sometimes stole packages from the back of his truck, including one that contained a pound of marijuana and some that contained women’s clothing, which he gave to family.

In 1995, Rocha was sentenced to three years in prison for assault with a firearm. He was also sentenced in 2003 to two years in prison for felony domestic violence. He violated the terms of his parole on several occasions in this period, according to the affidavit.

For theft of public money, Rocha faces a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison with three years’ supervised release and a $25,000 fine.

You can reach Staff Writer Chantelle Lee at 707-521-5337 or chantelle.lee@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ChantelleHLee.