Metro News Release

For immediate release: July 23, 2008

Metro responds to inaccurate Washington Examiner editorial

The following is a link to Metro's "Real Deal," which is a response to today's inaccurate Examiner editorial.

The real deal:

The editorial in today's Washington Examiner about last week's theft scam against Metro is full of inaccuracies. The worst of them is the accusation that Metro employees are responsible for a counterfeit-farecard scam when the editorial made the claim that the case "strongly suggests an inside job." Shame on The Examiner!

Metro General Manager John Catoe and Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn specifically told reporters at a press conference Friday, July 18, that there was no evidence to suggest that employees were involved. Yesterday, editorial writer Barbara Hollingsworth called Metro and asked one question: Were employees involved? She was specifically told that "there is absolutely no evidence" of employee involvement.

So far, six people have been arrested by Transit Police. None of them are Metro employees.

For The Examiner to make speculative allegations that Metro employees were involved demonstrates the highest level of irresponsibility on the part of the newspaper's editors. Where is their evidence to be making such accusations? There is none. Indeed, the paper's reporter who covered the story reported the facts. See Examiner-Metro card scam. But that didn't stop the paper's editors from taking its cheap shots.

Should the police investigation determine that Metro employees were involved, we'll make that public, just as we informed the public that a scheme existed in the first place. But at this point, there is no evidence to suggest employees had anything to do with it. Mr. Catoe did not "hint that the counterfeiters may have had access to the same kind of software used to read legitimate farecards" as the paper falsely claimed. He said that other transit agencies around the country might be at risk of the same type of scheme because they use similar farecard machines, and he took the responsible step of alerting transit agencies of the scam. It has always been the practice for Metro to encourage customers to buy from legitimate vendors. The paper's statement that "Catoe's predecessor was forced out after it was reported that Metro parking lot attendants had pocketed more than $1 million," is also wrong. A 2003 audit of the parking lot theft found $29,738 in lost revenue at four stations over 48 days. The report speculated that there could have possibly been as high as $500,000 to $1 million annually if the theft was system-wide. However, there was no evidence of that. Richard White stepped down as general manager of Metro almost two years after the parking lot theft became public. His departure was not related to the parking lot thefts.

The editorial also alleged that Mr. Catoe's decision not to attend a national transportation leadership conference and instead remain in town to oversee and develop action steps to respond to the discovery of the counterfeit scheme implied that the problem "may be a lot more extensive." The paper instead should have applauded Mr. Catoe's decision to remain in town and demonstrate strong leadership. Surely had he decided to take his trip the paper would have ridiculed him for being absent.

In the future, the newspaper should stick to the facts. Metro officials discovered a counterfeit farecard scam. They wasted no time and arrested six people within days of discovering the fraud, developing strong action steps and holding a press conference to let the public know about the situation. Those are the facts. They are outlined on Metro's web site, including John Catoe's comments from the news conference.

News release issued at 4:11 pm, July 23, 2008.