NYC seeks to recover money made off transit impostor's film
NEW YORK -- To Hollywood, a transit impostor with a long history of posing as a New York City subway worker driving trains is rich material for a movie. But to transit officials, Darius McCollum is a criminal who shouldn't profit off his behavior.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Monday that it will use the state's Son of Sam law to try to recoup any money he makes off a feature film in development about his life.
McCollum, who has been arrested 30 times for transit-related crimes, was most recently arrested in November, when he was accused of stealing a Greyhound bus from a terminal in New Jersey and driving it to Brooklyn.
Transit officials said they would ask for written notice from the film's producers, The Gotham Group, of their financial agreement with McCollum. The officials said they were seeking "any ill-gotten gains he receives from participation in this purported film project." The Gotham Group had no comment.
McCollum, now 50, had the subway map memorized by age 8. He befriended engineers and pilots and first started hanging around the subway as a child - he knows every subway line, every stop. After the Sept. 11 attacks, he was asked by the MTA to help fortify their system, his lawyer said. He wanted to work for the MTA, but transit officials have long said they would not hire someone who had stolen a train, as he did at 15 from Penn Station to the World Trade Center.
"The MTA created this problem because they were lazy and glad to have him do their work," said McCollum's attorney, Sally Butler. "They also aren't involved in this case. I will fight this."
McCollum's story has been in newspapers and magazines for decades. A documentary about his life, "Off the Rails," will premiere April 7 at the Full Frame festival in Durham, North Carolina. The feature film, tentatively titled "Train Man," was sold to a financer and is set to star Julia Roberts as Butler, who has been McCollum's attorney since his 2010 arrest in Queens for stealing a Trailways bus.
He hasn't seen any money yet from the producers, Butler said. Any money would likely come if the film makes it to production.
"And if he gets any, he should be able to keep it," she said. "This is not your usual guy in jail. He's a special case."
The state's Son of Sam law originated after rumors that publishers and movie studios were offering large amounts of money to David Berkowitz for his story, and it was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991 during a battle over the mobster tale "Wiseguy." The struck-down law was replaced in 2005.
In a Brooklyn court Monday, McCollum rejected a plea deal that would have sent him to prison for up to 10 years. He's pleaded in every other criminal case against him.
His long time attorney has requested that his case be sent to mental health court, reports CBS New York.
"He is on the autism spectrum. He has Asperger's," Butler said in court.
McCollum became a local celebrity of sorts for escapades that began in 1981 at age 15, when he piloted a subway train six stops without any passengers noticing. He grew up in Queens near a station serving two MTA lines and learned the mechanics of the transit system from workers who took an interest in him.
The district attorney's office initially said it would not allow the move to a mental health court, but then backed off its stance. A decision is expected April 11.