(The Associated Press circulated the following on August 28, 2010.)
IRVING, N.Y. — Federal prosecutors have charged two people with lying during an investigation of an attempt to sabotage an Amtrak line on Indian territory in western New York.
The FBI has been probing a July 5 incident in which an Amtrak train carrying 354 passengers hit a barricade of railroad ties on the Seneca Nation’s Cattaraugus Territory south of Buffalo.
The train was moving at 70 mph, but damage wasn’t severe and no one was hurt.
Federal prosecutors said their probe has focused on four men who walked along the tracks after leaving a party.
On Friday they charged Christine Seneca and James Phillips, of Irving, with giving false answers to agents when questioned about who was at the gathering.
They pleaded not guilty and were released.
The phone at the couple’s home rang unanswered Saturday.