26°
Maurice Driver, 35, of Gloucester City, NJ, was charged with lying to a federal agent in a five-count indictment unsealed on Tuesday, June 4, U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Special Agent in Charge Mike Waters of the Amtrak Office of Inspector General Eastern Area Field Office announced.
Driver had been working as a lead service attendant in the café car of the Amtrak train that left Washington, D.C. in the afternoon of Jan. 3, 2024, when he met his victim, a passenger, Waters and Graves said.
Driver spoke to and texted with the passenger, and Driver allowed her to use a vacant sleeper car on the train, federal officials said. Once the train arrived in Chicago the following morning, the passenger told Amtrak police that Driver sexually assaulted her in a sleeper car on the train, officials said.
That's when Amtrak-OIG initiated an investigation into Driver for sexual assault allegations.
On a Jan. 5 interview with an Amtrak-OIG Special Agent, Driver "made multiple false and misleading statements about his communications and contacts with the passenger," Waters and Graves said.
According to authorities, such false and misleading statements included:
Driver’s falsely denying his personal phone number;
- Driver falsely denying that he gave the passenger his personal phone number;
- Driver falsely denying that he texted with the passenger;
- Driver falsely denying that he showed the passenger to a sleeper car.
Finally, Driver denied texting the passenger his hotel information during his layover, federal officials said.
If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum statutory sentence of five years in prison for the charged offenses of making false statements.
Click here to follow Daily Voice West Milford and receive free news updates.
