Emergency personnel work at the scene of a night derailment May 13, 2015, in Philadelphia of an Amtrak train headed to New York. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

For the second time, the Amtrak train engineer involved in the fatal derailment in Philadelphia in 2015 has avoided prosecution.

The second round of charges against Brandon Bostian were dropped Tuesday when Court of Common Pleas Judge Barbara McDermott granted his motion for habeas corpus.

A spokesperson for Attorney General's Office said it will appeal the decision.

Brian McMonagle, who represents Bostian, said Tuesday, “A good man and a fine engineer made an honest mistake while driving his train through an active crime scene where criminals were throwing rocks through the windshields of passenger trains. The idea of prosecuting the engineer is an obscenity.”

He continued, “The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, the Justice Department, the National Transportation Board and now two judges have concluded that this was an accident and not a crime. I have great respect for the Attorney General's Office but the time has come for them to call the civil attorneys who started this prosecution and tell them that they were wrong to do so.”

On May 10, 2017, Thomas Kline and Robert Mongeluzzi, the Philadelphia plaintiffs attorneys who handled the civil litigation related to the derailment, along with prominent Philadelphia attorney Richard Sprague, filed two private criminal complaints on behalf of the victims' families. Those complaints were filed the day after the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office announced it would not file criminal charges against Bostian after an investigation by the office's homicide unit determined there was “no evidence that the engineer acted with criminal 'intent' or criminal 'knowledge' within the special meaning of those terms under Pennsylvania law for purposes of criminal charges.”

“Nor do we believe there is sufficient evidence to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, criminal recklessness, which would be the only other basis for criminal liability,” the District Attorney's Office said at the time.

The day after the private criminal complaints were filed, the District Attorney's Office again declined to bring charges and the decision was immediately appealed to the Philadelphia Municipal Court.

Following a hearing later that day, Municipal Court President Judge Marsha Neifield ordered the District Attorney's Office to bring charges.

The District Attorney's Office responded to the order by referring the case to the state Attorney General's Office, which filed charges against Bostian on May 12, 2017.

On Sept. 12, 2017, Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Thomas Gehret dismissed the charges against Bostian, ruling that there wasn't enough evidence to show a crime had been committed. But those charges were reinstated in February 2018 when Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Kathryn Streeter Lewis overturned Gehret's ruling.

On Tuesday, according to the docket in the case, McDermott granted Bostian's motion to reconsider Lewis' ruling and dismissed all charges.

In response to Tuesday's developments, Kline and Mongeluzzi issued a joint statement:

“We disagree with the ruling today and we disagree with Mr. McMonagle. This case was rightfully and independently pursued by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, including the felony charge of risking a catastrophe, which was not brought originally by anyone other than the Attorney General,” they said.  “Our clients are hopeful that the ruling will be reversed on appeal, and that ultimately there will be public accountability of Mr. Bostian, whose negligence caused the death of eight individuals and mayhem to the lives of hundreds of others.”

In February 2016, the National Transportation Safety Board released 2,000 pages of documents on the May 12, 2015, derailment, some of which detailed agency interviews with Bostian, who went around a curve doing twice the speed limit.

In a May 2015 interview, Bostian said his memory was blank after passing train platforms in North Philadelphia after ­leaving 30th Street Station—the next thing he remembered was coming to in the cab of the train after the accident. In a November 2015 interview, he recalled that he “may have” accelerated to 80 mph coming up to the curve where the train derailed in the Port Richmond section of the city—although he said he wasn't sure whether that was on the night of the accident—stating, “I ­remember feeling as though I was going too fast around the curve.”

The derailment resulted in a federal ­lawsuit against Amtrak, with the rail carrier admitting liability and ultimately agreeing to a $265 million settlement.

U.S. District Judge Legrome Davis of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania approved the settlement in the Amtrak multidistrict litigation Oct. 27, 2016, which reflected the “present value” of the federally capped $295 million damages limit Amtrak can be liable for.