Metro-North conductor accused of assaulting MTA cops turns down plea deal

A Metro-North conductor accused of assaulting two MTA police officers in August turned down a plea deal Monday that would have spared him criminal charges.

During a court hearing Monday, Manhattan prosecutors offered to reduce assault and resisting arrest changes pending against conductor Thomas Moran to a disorderly conduct violation, his attorney said.

Moran refused the offer, even though the deal included an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, which means the charge wouldn’t appear on Moran’s record if he did not commit a crime for at least six months.

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“He refused because he’s completely innocent,” said Moran’s attorney, Jeffrey Chartier.

Moran’s due back in Manhattan Supreme Court on Jan. 2, 2018.

During the early morning hours of Aug. 4, Moran got into an altercation with two MTA police officers on a Grand Central Terminal platform after he refused a passenger who wanted to disembark the train at 125th Street in Harlem.

Northbound Metro-North trains out of Grand Central pick up passengers at 125th Street but do not drop off passengers there.

A criminal complaint filed by an MTA police officer said Moran was yelling and cursing and flailing his arms after officers tried to intercede in the dispute. It claims Moran knocked the two officers to the ground.

Michael O’Meara, the president of the MTA Police Benevolent Association, told The Journal News/lohud in August that Moran berated the officers while they were trying to convince him to allow the handicapped passenger on the train.

Representatives of Moran’s union, the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, tell a different story. They say a surveillance video shows Moran being forcibly knocked to the ground by two MTA police officers while a police dog barks in his face.

ACRE’s former general chairman, James Fahey, says the incident was a clear-cut case of police brutality and suggested the officers themselves should be arrested.

Fahey, who has since retired from the union, accompanied Moran to his court appearance Monday.

“Now that all the facts are in, it’s clear that this was a totally belligerent attack on the part of the Metro-North police,” Fahey said. “There was not one thing Tommy Moran did wrong. He was taking care of the safety of customers.”

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Moran, of Cheshire, Connecticut, was injured in the confrontation and has not returned to work. He has worked for Metro-North for 17 years.

“The man has four kids,” Fahey said. “The officers were totally unprofessional. This has been a total tragedy.”