PORTAGE, Ind. -- A conductor on northern Indiana's South Shore commuter rail line has been charged with battery after he allegedly threw a passenger off his train, the Associated Press reported.
Forty-eight-year-old Gregory Beach of Valparaiso was charged with misdemeanor battery for the March 28 incident at a stop in Chesterton. (Beach is a member of UTU Local 1526 at Michigan City, Ind.)
Porter County prosecutors say Beach pushed Gary resident Calvin Kirk off the top train steps at the Dune Park station, causing Kirk to lose teeth and suffer cuts and abrasions.
Kirk's attorney said his client was sleeping when he was roused by Beach and tossed face first off the train. He says Kirk was posing no threat.
An attorney for the company that operates the line says it is conducting an internal investigation and Beach could face disciplinary action in accordance with the line's collective bargaining agreement.
(The preceding article was distributed May 7, 2009, by the Associated Press.)
I have only been called cracka in the Nicetown-Tioga section of the city....by some drunk who just left Lou & Choo's got high centered on track 1 at Nice and scratched the plow on the front of my locomotive. She called me that while sitting in the back seat of a squad car
