DA: LIRR engineer, passenger 'unimaginably reckless'

A suspended Long Island Rail Road engineer and the passenger who authorities say he allowed to drive a 500-ton rush hour train for more than 24 miles committed an "unimaginably reckless" act that deserves severe consequences, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said Wednesday as both men pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges.

The engineer, Ronald Cabrera, 40, of Centereach, and the passenger, William Kutsch, 47, of East Setauket, surrendered to authorities Wednesday morning and were later arraigned in Nassau District Court in Hempstead on second-degree reckless endangerment charges.

Cabrera, a 20-year LIRR veteran whose father worked for the railroad, was also charged with official misconduct. Kutsch, a court stenographer who works in Manhattan, has a brother who works as an LIRR conductor, sources close to the case said.

Both men were released without bail and face up to a year in jail if convicted.

"While no one was hurt in this incident, make no mistake that the potential for danger in this situation was incredibly high," said Rice. "These two men put countless lives at risk on July 2nd, and for that they will now face the consequences."

Kutsch's attorney, Peter Thomas of Flushing, declined to comment other than to say his client would defend himself "in court at the appropriate time. . . . When the time comes, he'll speak."

Cabrera's attorney, William Keahon of Hauppauge, said Rice is "skipping the whole process" by declaring his client guilty before he is given an opportunity to defend himself.

"The D.A. was not in that cab, was she?" Keahon said. "Any operation of this train was done by my client and my client only."

The arrests came after a two-week investigation that Rice said included interviews with "multiple eyewitnesses" to the incident, which authorities say took place on the 6:45 a.m. westbound train from Port Jefferson.

The witnesses included two passengers who saw Cabrera "enter and exit" the one-person engineer cab as the train moved from Hicksville to Hunterspoint Avenue in Queens, and another LIRR employee on the train who observed Kutsch behind the controls, but mistakenly thought he was an engineer trainee.

The train reached speeds of up to 80 mph on the route. There was no "autopilot" on the train, which required the constant compression of a "dead man's pedal" in order to keep it moving, Rice said.

"So while Cabrera was not at the controls, someone else had to be," Rice said.

Cabrera, a lifelong Suffolk resident and father of two girls, faces disciplinary action from the LIRR, including dismissal.

In a statement Wednesday, an LIRR spokesman said the agency "acted immediately when these extremely serious and troubling allegations first came to light" and removed the engineer from service that day.

The first passenger to contact police after witnessing the incident has said he saw Kutsch brag to other passengers after leaving the control booth and saying, "How'd I do?"

Wednesday, the witness, who spoke under condition of anonymity, revealed that he helped police nab Kutsch by picking him out of a photo lineup. "I said, 'There's your guy.'

"It's a relief to know that they got theirs," he said.