An Amtrak employee has found himself on the wrong side of the law after prosecutors charged him with making false statements to a federal agent, as per an indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court. Maurice Driver, 35, was working aboard an Amtrak train that journeyed from Washington, D.C. to Chicago on the 3rd and 4th of January this year, according to details released by the Justice Department.
Driver's encounter with a passenger during his night shift as a Lead Service Attendant led to a sexual assault allegation; the passenger claimed the incident occurred in a sleeper car on the train, a facilitated move by Driver which would later unravel into a series of lies when questioned by the Amtrak Office of Inspector General (Amtrak-OIG) the indictment described several false statements Driver made during a January 5 interview with Amtrak-OIG Special Agent; where he denied providing his personal phone number to the passenger, and further denied that he had any text communication with her or showed her to a sleeper car.
The consequences of Driver's alleged fabrications carry a heavy weight, with the indictment noting that a conviction could result in a maximum of five years in prison for making false statements. U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Amtrak-OIG's Special Agent Mike Waters brought the charges, while Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rebecca G. Ross and Brian P. Kelly are tasked with prosecution duties. The penalties outlined are benchmarks set by Congress, meant to act as guides rather than definitive sentences, with the final decision left to the court's determination influenced by the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and myriad other statutory considerations.
The Amtrak-OIG’s Eastern Region office is persistently digging into the matter to reveal the threads of truth entangled in the events of those January days, further exploration into the case will likely illuminate the integrity, or lack thereof, surrounding Driver's recounting of the incident. As this investigation unfolds, the court will seek to peel back the layers of fact and fiction spun during the consequential encounter between Driver and the passenger one chilly January night on the tracks between two of America's bustling cities.
