IG: LIRR crane engineer suspended after meeting with woman at motel while on 24-hour overtime shift

A Long Island Rail Road crane engineer has been suspended without pay for 90 days after investigators confirmed he met with a woman at a Medford motel when he was supposed to be working a 24-hour overtime shift.

A report from the MTA Inspector General's Office found that the 25-year LIRR employee submitted false labor sheets indicating he had worked his entire shift.

Investigators also identified more than 100 calls between the unidentified crane engineer and the woman in November 2020 on his LIRR-issued cellphone, in violation of MTA policy, the report found.

"The LIRR crane engineer engaged in a course of conduct which violated the public trust, submitted falsified time records, and stole LIRR funds by, while on duty, leaving his worksite during his overtime tour to meet the complainant at a hotel" the report said.

The unidentified female complainant told investigators she met with the engineer on multiple occasions from the fall of 2020 through October 2021, during times she believed he was supposed to working overtime for the LIRR, the report said. She said the engineer would arrive for liaisons in an LIRR truck accompanied by his partner, investigators said.

The IG's office obtained records from a Medford hotel booked in the female complainant's name for Nov. 21, 2020 during a time when the engineer was working track support at Holban Yard, Hicksville Freight Yard, and Long Island City Passenger Yard.

The engineer admitted meeting the woman at the hotel, adding that his partner at the time stayed with their LIRR vehicle at the worksite, the report said. He also admitted making more than 100 personal calls to the complaint in one month, sometimes for over an hour, on his LIRR-issued cellphone, investigators said.

The engineer was credited with working overtime from 4 a.m. on Nov. 21 through 4 a.m. Nov. 22, 2020.

The engineer's supervisor told the IG's office that employees were expected to remain on site during working hours, including break times. The supervisor said he did not personally go to the different sites over the weekends as each location had supervisors working on site. 

“The MTA takes overtime abuses seriously," said agency spokesman Sean Butler. "This crane engineer’s actions violated the public trust and the MTA has since disciplined the individual. The Authority has aggressively tackled time theft and implemented new controls to substantially increase oversight and accountability.”

The MTA said the engineer wouldn’t be able to bid for a crane operator job for eight years, and could only work in locations with supervisory monitoring for an eight-year period, significantly limiting overtime opportunities.

In recent years, several former LIRR employees have pleaded guilty to defrauding the MTA through overtime fraud. The MTA said it had improved spending controls, leading to a $21 million reduction in overtime expenditures in 2021.