Suffolk DA Ray Tierney says MTA 'deficiencies' led to no charges against LIRR workers

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney on Wednesday defended his decision not to prosecute 36 LIRR workers accused in a fake ID wage theft ring, saying the case had been "tainted with inadmissible evidence" before it was brought to him.

Meanwhile, two MTA board members said Tierney's continued inaction sends the wrong message, and the authority's chairman weighed in for the first time Wednesday, saying the workers should be gone from the railroad.

Last week, MTA Inspector General Daniel Cort released the findings of a nearly three-year long investigation into the 36 LIRR workers who allegedly duplicated, distributed and used counterfeit employee identification cards. Employees scanned the cloned badges at time clocks to cover up for the absences of their co-workers, including at a Ronkonkoma facility, investigators said.

After Newsday first reported on the investigation's findings last week, Tierney confirmed the case was referred to his office in May, 2023. Following a 16-month investigation, Tierney said last week, "it was determined that the evidence provided by MTA was insufficient to bring prosecutions due to the lack of controls at the MTA facility."

At a railroad committee meeting Monday, MTA Board Member James O’Donnell said he was "extremely disappointed" in Tierney.

"In this case, none of them it seems are going to be prosecuted criminally. To me, that’s a mistake. These corruption cases don’t go away. Sooner or later somebody figures out a way to get around the system," O’Donnell said. "It’s not good when a district attorney, especially in Suffolk County, refuses to prosecute. It makes the IG’s office look bad. It makes all of us look bad."

In a statement Wednesday, Tierney called it "surprising" that O'Donnell, a former MTA Police chief, "would be advocating for prosecutions without sufficient evidence."

"Unfortunately, the MTA had poor record-keeping, an uncontrolled entrance with no video and no biometric data collection," said Tierney, who noted that, by the time the case was referred to his office, the targets of the probe were already aware of the investigation.

Still, Tierney said, his office "undertook an extensive investigation" that included grand jury subpoenas for phone records, search warrants for cellphone location data, interviews with more than a dozen witnesses, hundreds of hours of video surveillance reviewed, and analyses of payroll and time records.

"Ultimately, deficiencies in the MTA's procedures ... made it impossible to assemble a provable criminal case," said Tierney, who noted that some of the alleged fraud took place outside his jurisdiction. Prosecutors in Manhattan and Queens, where the scheme also allegedly took place, have not addressed whether they investigated the case.

MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber, talking to reporters following the MTA monthly board meeting Wednesday, said he doesn’t "know enough about the evidentiary issues" to weigh in on Tierney’s decision, but called the alleged acts "outrageous" — especially those involving seven LIRR supervisors.

While he understood that disciplinary procedures are still playing out with some of the workers, Lieber said: "if you’re a supervisor and you’re actually corruptly involved with this kind of rip-off of the public, I don’t think there’s a place for you at the Long Island Rail Road."

Most of the accused employees have faced a range of sanctions, including unpaid suspensions, demotions, and forfeited earnings. Disciplinary measures, up to and including termination, are still pending against some of the workers. But others resigned or retired before the investigation was completed, avoiding any punishment.

 The implicated employees all worked in the LIRR’s Maintenance of Equipment Department, and included train car inspectors, car cleaners, car repairmen, welders, machinists and oilers.

A Newsday analysis showed that the accused workers made on average 1.3 to 2.7 times more in overtime last year than their fellow LIRR employees. They included the LIRR's top overtime earner in 2024, gang foreman Craig Murray, who made $220,073 in overtime alone last year, records show. Murray remains employed at the LIRR, pending ongoing disciplinary proceedings. 

Anthony Simon, who heads the union representing most of the accused workers, has said they "accepted responsibility for their actions and have faced the appropriate disciplinary measures."

In an interview Wednesday, MTA board member Gerard Bringmann, who chairs the LIRR Commuter Council, said he believes MTA officials "have gone as far as they can go" in punishing the workers, but "the D.A.'s failure to act sends a bad message."

"There are some holes. Maybe it wasn't given to the district attorney with a nice red bow tied around it ... But just because it's not a slam dunk doesn't mean the district attorney shouldn't be giving a serious look at this," Bringmann said. "From the public point of view, they just blew it off too easily."

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.