A gun-loving LIRR retiree charged in the $1 billion “gravy train” disa🦂bility scheme threatened to kill a key witness against him — and now has to await trial behind bars, court records show.
Former conductor Thoma꧋s Coscetta is “unhinged” and “has been engaging in an escalating pattern of intimidation and pattern to a kill a witness in the case,” a prosecu⭕tor said during an emergency bail hearing.
Cosceꦇtta, 62, has repeatedly r🎶eferred to the man as a “rat,” and said it “right to his face,” Manhattan federal prosecutor Nicole Friedlander said.
Coscetta snuck up on the man while he w𓂃as wearing protective hearing gear and shooting at the Mattituck Gun Club, where they’re both members, Friedlander said.
“Mr. Coscetta stomped on the ground where [the witness] was standing and said, ‘You see, I couldಌ kill him now,’ ” a third club member told the feds, according to Friedlander.
“He described Mr. Coscetta’s hꦍarassment of [the witness] as incessant. That he goes on repeated tirades about [the witness] and wants others to stay away from him,” she added.
In addition to the alleged threats, Coscetta was r𒉰ecently sp🔜otted taking “a very expensive rifle” out of his car and shooting several rounds at the club, Friedlander said.
Terms of Coscetta’s $100,000 bond required him ▨to surrender all his firearms to authorities by Sept. 14 of last year.
🧜Magistrate J🐟udge James Francis IV cited Coscetta’s continued access to the firearm when he ordered him held without bail Saturday pending his scheduled Sept. 23 trial.
Coscetta was busted last year for allegedly scamming disability benefits since taking early retiremenౠ🦄t from the LIRR in 2004 at age 52.