(The following article by J. Jioni Palmer was posted on Newsday’s website on August 11.)
NEW YORK — Long Island Rail Road conductor Michael Lescak had come to expect a raucous crowd on the 3:22 Saturday morning train from Penn Station to Port Washington.
“It is pretty well-known to have a lot of drunks and rowdy people on it,” said the Bohemia resident, 25, who has been working as a conductor for three years.
But he said he never thought he’d end up getting pummeled by a pack of passengers. Yet that is precisely what happened, he said, after he heard screams coming from one of the cars as the train pulled into the Manhasset station about 4 a.m.
“I saw a couple of youths verbally abusing and then physically assaulting a guy and his girlfriend,” said Lescak, who ran over to intervene.
He said he managed to break up the incident briefly, but he said one of the youths began pounding the man on the head. At that point, Lescak said, he tried to restrain the attacker, but was instead set upon by the youths.
“They started punching me in the back of the head and neck,” he said. “I got knocked to the ground. I tried to fight my way off of the train because with one on six, the odds weren’t too good for me.”
Lescak said his attackers reassembled on the platform to attack him again, but were averted when they saw him reach for his radio to call police.
“They surrounded me on the platform, but once they saw what I was doing, they ran,” he said.
He said the initial altercation began when the male passenger asked the group of rowdy youths to pipe down.
“They were making a lot of noise and he asked them to be quiet,” Lescak said. “That’s why they attacked these people. I wanted them held responsible for what they did.”
Lescak said he returned to the train to check on the couple, then ran to the station parking lot to take down the license plate number of the car of one of the assailants before they drove off.
“Luckily, there was a bit of a traffic jam and they weren’t able to leave quickly,” he said of about four of his attackers who fled in a Lexus sport utility vehicle registered to Clifford Moskowitz, 19, of 5 Estate Dr., East Hills.
Lescak said he was standing in front of the vehicle writing down the license plate number when the car sped forward, almost running him down. He jumped on the vehicle’s hood and held on for several feet, then was thrown to the ground.
“I don’t know if he was trying to run me over. He knew I was in front of him,” Lescak said. “He put his foot on the gas and I had nowhere to go. It was either that [jump on the hood] or be hit by the car.”
Lescak was treated and released for bruises and a swollen hand and knee at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.
Moskowitz was later arrested and charged with second-degree gang assault and second-degree assault. He was arraigned in First District Court in Hempstead yesterday and released on $15,000 cash bail.
Moskowitz declined to comment when reached by phone yesterday. Police are still investigating the incident.