An off-duty Metro track worker was charged with public drunkenness and impeding police at a Metro station, just hours before he was slated to return to work.
Robert Moss, an employee since December 2006, was arrested inside the Pentagon City station by the agency’s own police, Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said.
The officers saw a man unsteady on his feet on the station platform, Taubenkibel said. He then struggled with the cops after trying to run from them, he said.
Moss was charged with being drunk in public and impeding an officer with force, according to Taubenkibel.
The arrest, first reported by ARLnow.com, occurred when Moss was still in uniform.
Moss, who was arrested at 5:15 p.m. Thursday, had ended his overnight shift doing track maintenance at 6 a.m. that day and was slated to return at 10 p.m., Taubenkibel said.
Typically, Metro employees who get in trouble in the workplace are put on administrative leave while the transit agency investigates the case. Yet Moss’ work status remained unchanged as of Friday. Because the incident occurred while Moss was off-duty, Taubenkibel said, Metro’s track maintenance department would address the issue when he next reported for work.
Moss was just the latest Metro employee to face arrest, though he represents a rare instance of a worker busted off-duty by Metro police.
In April, three Metro workers were arrested in connection with separate incidents that occurred while on the job, including a Metrobus operator accused of pulling a knife on a motorist, another accused of soliciting an undercover cop for prostitution, and a MetroAccess driver charged with a third-degree sex offense.
Last year, the transit agency pledged to tighten both its hiring practices and employee disciplinary policies after other arrests made the news, including the case of a Metrobus driver socking an off-duty cop dressed as McGruff the Crime Dog.
The agency fired that driver, but, as The Washington Examiner first reported on Wednesday, it was forced to reinstate him following an arbitration ruling this spring. He is slated to return behind the wheel later this month.
