CLEVELAND — A Cleveland man is facing federal terrorism charges after authorities say he tried to intentionally derail trains multiple times over the previous two months.
According to an FBI affidavit obtained by 3News, Joseph Findley was arrested Friday at his home near East 63rd Street. Officials claim he placed several objects on the railroad tracks that caused a hazard to passing locomotives and railcars.
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The probe into Findley first stems from an Aug. 12 incident, when a CSX locomotive briefly derailed after it struck a piece of metal just east of East 55th Street. The engine had been conducting a test run for the railroad's "Family Days" event, where it was scheduled to pull a special passenger train filled with company employees and their loved ones.
Per investigators, the metal object had been jammed into a switch point in an effort to keep it from moving, and the affected rails suffered $10,000 worth of damage in the collision. Two days later, agents were alerted to another metal object resembling a track plate jammed into a CSX switch, and the FBI soon took over the case partly because the rails are typically used by Amtrak, whose trains carry roughly 150-200 people when passing through Cleveland.
Authorities reviewed surveillance footage over the ensuing days and weeks that appeared to show a man placing things like track plates and railroad spikes onto the rails and into the switches several times, with the last such incident occurring this past Sunday. A worker at a nearby store identified the suspect in the photos as Findley, and the feds were able to trace his address and take him into custody.
When confronted by the agents, Findley reportedly admitted to being the person in the videos and to placing spikes on the tracks, but denied placing other objects in the switches and said he had no intention of causing a train to crash. However, in the criminal complaint, one of the agents stated his belief that the pieces of metal were placed on the rails in a way that showed "characteristics of an intentional act" by someone who had "a base knowledge of how the tracks and the switch operate as well as how to disrupt these normal operations."
Findley is currently being held behind bars until his first court hearing, which is scheduled for this coming Thursday. Besides the initial Aug. 12 derailment, there were no wrecks caused by the objects being placed on the rails and no one was hurt.