Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Taijuan Corse pleaded guilty to attempted assault for waving a knife at four Long Island Rail Road workers, causing minor injuries to two of them, during an incident last summer. As part of the conditions of his plea, the defendant is banned from Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North trains as requested by the district attorney.

District Attorney Katz said: “Transit workers deserve to be treated with respect as they perform their duties and should never have to fear violence from passengers. For the first time in New York City, a defendant’s sentence includes a transit ban. This defendant has forfeited the privilege of using our commuter trains for the foreseeable future, making it clear that incidents like this one will be taken very seriously.”

Corse, 32, of 133^rd Avenue in Jamaica, pleaded guilty yesterday to attempted assault in the second degree. Queens Supreme Court Justice Jerry Iannece ordered, as a condition of the defendant’s plea, a one-year substance abuse and mental health outpatient program plus a three-year ban from Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North train systems. Failure to satisfactorily complete the terms of the plea agreement would result in 1 to 3 years of incarceration.

According to the charges:

• On Thursday, August 25, 2022, shortly after 11:00 a.m., Corse boarded an eastbound LIRR train at Atlantic Terminal. When 53-year-old conductor Steven Torborg asked for Corse’s train ticket, he said he didn’t have one and threatened him. Three additional transit workers approached Corse and saw him remove a knife from his backpack, which he waved at them.
• Corse repeatedly lunged with the knife toward 61-year-old Walter Doner, Jr. and swung the knife toward 52-year-old Richard Cutrone, cutting his arm.
• Corse threatened to kill the workers, and, as the train approached the Jamaica LIRR train station, cut 60-year-old Gerald Lopez.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Luccarelli of the District Attorney’s Felony Trials III Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Rachel E. Buchter, Bureau Chief, Peter V. Lomp and Christine A McCoy, Deputy Chiefs, and the under overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Supreme Court Trials Pishoy B. Yacoub.