NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

JOHN F. WOOD

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

JANUARY 3, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KANSAS MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO ASSAULT

IN POST OFFICE ARMED ROBBERY

            KANSAS CITY, Mo. – John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Shawnee, Kan., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to assaulting postal employees during the armed robbery of a post office in south Kansas City.

             Tony J. Lee, 19, of Shawnee, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Scott O. Wright this morning to the charge contained in an Aug. 7, 2007, federal indictment.

             By pleading guilty today, Lee admitted that he aided and abetted others to assault postal employees on May 12, 2007, with the intent to steal at gunpoint the property of the United States at the Longview Post Office, 8800 Raytown Rd., Kansas City.

             Lee, armed with a handgun, entered the post office at about 12:20 p.m. on May 12, 2007. The facility was open for normal operation, with three postal workers at the front counter assisting two customers at the time of the robbery. A third customer was in the adjacent post office box section. Lee stayed in the lobby, pointing his firearm at the postal employees and customers, while others participated in the robbery by brandishing firearms and stealing $1,769 from two cash drawers.

            This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Roseann Ketchmark. It was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.