13 Metro-North Workers Accused of
Cheating on Conductor Exams
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
JUNE 29, 2015
A dozen current and former employees of the Metro-North Railroad were brought into state court
in Manhattan in handcuffs on Monday on charges that they cheated on the exams required to
become a train conductor or locomotive engineer.
Prosecutors said the defendants stole copies of tests and their answers, then distributed them
through email to other candidates who had yet to take the exams. Among other things, the tests
evaluate knowledge of braking controls, emergency procedures, speed limits and signals.
Three of the defendants were members of a 2011 class of locomotive engineers; they are accused
of stealing copies of three different tests and distributing them to other aspiring engineers over a
two-year period.
One of them, Anthony Carbone, 56, of North Haven, Conn., appended a note to one of the
filched exams, saying: “I would not let too many people know about this test. Word gets out,
we’re done for,” according to court documents. Another engineer candidate, Raymond Fuentes,
41, was accused of emailing the answer sheets for two recertification tests in March 2014 to an
licensed engineer who was about to take the exam.
The district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said the alleged cheating could compromise safety and
“poses potential dangers far beyond the act of passing answers.”
Barry L. Kluger, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s inspector general, said the
investigation — a joint effort between his office and the Manhattan district attorney — had
uncovered “longstanding practices that undermined the very integrity” of tests intended to ensure
the safety of passengers.
In all, 13 former and current employees of the railroad were charged in three separate
indictments with “impairing the integrity of a government licensing examination.” Twelve of
them surrendered voluntarily and were arraigned before Justice Thomas Farber of State Supreme
Court. All pleaded not guilty and were released without bail. One was not yet arrested as of
Monday night.
Defense lawyers contended that their clients were innocent and predicted they would be
acquitted. Some of the lawyers pointed out that, beyond the written tests, most of the defendants
had also passed hands-on operational tests under the direct supervision of superiors.
“There was never at any time any danger to the public,” said Jeffrey P. Chartier, who represents
Coltyn Reindel, 25, one of the men accused of leaking a copy of the engineer’s exam. “They did
their job, and they did it effectively.”
Andrew Miller, a lawyer for one of the conductors who was arrested, Sean Macauley, 39, said
his client was innocent. “It seems to me they are taking a case of simple high school cheating and
making it into a federal case,” he said.
Four of the accused employees have been fired, and the nine others were suspended on Friday,
said Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the transportation authority.
Mr. Donovan said the authority’s Police Department and inspector general began looking into
allegations of cheating on exams a year ago, and the ensuing investigation eventually led to the
indictments unsealed on Monday.
As the scale of the leaks became apparent, he said, the railroad disbanded one class of conductor
trainees and retested other classes of engineers and conductors. It also tightened procedures to
keep the examinations confidential and overhauled its testing protocols, toughening the written
sections and requiring two performance tests to pass.
According to an indictment and other court documents, nine of the people charged were
candidates to become conductors who obtained photographs of their test and its answers, then
distributed them. They are accused of sharing photographs with other people trying to pass the
same examination from December 2013 to May 2014.
Some of the photos were taken by Dennis Degenfelder, 36, an aspiring conductor from
Holbrook, N.Y., prosecutors said. He told investigators he used his cellphone to take pictures of
one of the tests, which he found on the instructor’s computer while Mr. Degenfelder was
watching a hockey game on it during a classroom break, according to court documents.