The alleged incident left a 27-year-old Jersey City man in need of five stitches around his right eye.
Brian Fortney, 51, of Piscataway, was arrested early this morning and charged with aggravated assault following an altercation with a passenger, police said. (Courtesy of Port Authority police)A PATH train conductor was arrested early this morning following an on-board altercation with a passenger that started when he told the man to take his feet off the seats, Port Authority police said.
Brian Fortney, 51, of Piscataway, was charged with aggravated assault for the alleged incident that left a 27-year-old Jersey City man in need of five stitches around his right eye, Port Authority police spokesman Joe Pentangelo said.
At about 4 a.m. today, Port Authority police received a report of a disorderly passenger from the conductor of a World Trade Center-Newark train as it approached Exchange Place in Jersey City. When the train pulled into the Grove Street PATH station at about 4:13 a.m. Port Authority police met the train and interviewed the subjects and witnesses, Pentangelo said.
But Fortney was placed under arrest after police interviewed a pair of independent witnesses, one of whom said the altercation began when the conductor told the passenger to remove his feet from the seats, Pentangelo said.
The spokesman added that the dispute started verbally and eventually turned physical, at one point spilling out onto a station platform.
The victim was taken to Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health, where he was treated a released, Pentangelo said.
No additional details on the incident were provided.
Port Authority officials could not be immediately reached for comment in regards to Fortney's employment status.
According to Port Authority's 2015 payroll records, Fortney has worked for the bi-state agency since 1987 and currently makes north of $74,000 a year.