Photo by Kevin Harber

An ex-mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service admitted to dumping thousands of pieces of mail in a Northeast sewer.

Christopher Newton, a 22 year old from D.C., pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a federal charge of obstruction of mails, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C.

Newton was employed as a city carrier assistant between December 2015 and May 2016. A local news station told post office officials in May 2016 that mail had been found in a catch basin near the River Terrace Post Office in Northeast, where Newton was assigned.

Managers went to the intersection of Douglas Street and Anacostia Avenue NE and found 74 pieces of mail sticking out of a basin. The next day, investigators opened found 17 large trash bags of mail, an estimated 15,000 pieces, in a nearby sewer. The unsalvageable mail “was soaking wet and clumped together, and it shredded to pieces as it was picked up,” according to a court document.

Newton could get a maximum of six months in jail and have to pay financial penalties. Judge Ellen Huvelle is slated to sentence him on September 6.