By Jonathan D. Silver – September 15, 2015

Pittsburgh’s postmaster has been charged with intimidating a subordinate in an effort to cover up his illegal opening of express mail packages, some of which contained drugs, at the East Liberty station over the past year, according to a criminal complaint made public today.

Daniel P. Davis, 50, of Canonsburg, was charged by the Allegheny County district attorney’s office with intimidation of witnesses or victims, criminal coercion and official oppression.

The charges relate to one of those employees, identified as Mavin Parker, the U.S. Postal Service’s manager of customer service in Pittsburgh.

Detectives wrote in an affidavit that Mr. Davis threatened several subordinates — telling one, Donna Clay, a customer service supervisor in the Hazelwood office, that he would kill her — who had become aware that he was opening express mail packages at locations throughout Allegheny County.

Only the East Liberty station is mentioned in the paperwork released today as the site where Mr. Davis allegedly opened packages in violation of postal service regulations.

Mr. Davis has been the subject of investigations by both the DA’s office and the federal Office of Inspector General. It was unclear this morning whether Mr. Davis was in custody and whether there might be any federal charges pending.

On several occasions Mr. Davis opened packages in the East Liberty branch that contained drugs — marijuana, heroin and cocaine — hidden in bags of coffee, the affidavit said. Mr. Davis would then ask subordinates to contact postal inspectors.

He told one employee, authorities said, to watch for drug shipments from Texas, California, Arizona and Washington. Another worker told investigators that Mr. Davis would use Google to search online for the names of the sender and receiver of certain express mail packages and, upon discovering that one address was “bad,” he would open the package.

The employee said that Mr. Davis “made it seem like what he was doing was the right thing by getting drugs off the street,” the affidavit said.

It is unclear whether Mr. Davis was expecting the shipments that allegedly contained drugs.

Parker, a 30-year Postal Service employee who is currently off work, told investigators that she confronted Mr. Davis last year after seeing him open an express mail package. Several employees told Ms. Parker that they, too, had seen the same thing, and that Mr. Davis had threatened them, according to the affidavit.

In December, Ms. Parker said that her boss called her one evening to tell her she was being transferred.

“You better not be talking to anyone. They won’t believe you,” Ms. Parker said Mr. Davis told her, the affidavit said. “You don’t know what I am capable of.”

Source: Pittsburgh postmaster charged with intimidating subordinate to cover up illegal activity | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette