Posts tagged Johnny Doc Dougherty
Closing arguments are underway in John Dougherty embezzlement trial
December 4, 2023 // Dougherty threatened to “beat up,” “run over” and put potential witnesses “under the water” in a speech secretly recorded by an FBI informant. Costello, addressing the jury Monday morning, pointed to the frequency with which those supposed mistakes occurred. “This conduct was not a one-time mistake,” he said. “It was something that was done all the time. It was pervasive. It was intentional. In fact, it was so pervasive it just became routine.”
Trial of Philadelphia labor leaders exposes the rampant corruption plaguing the country’s unions
November 16, 2023 // On Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Grenell showed evidence of Burrows billing the union for more than $65,000 “for renovations done on his New Jersey home and other properties he owned,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Last week, lawyers showed the jury proof that Dougherty spent $7,000 of union dues on a birthday party and lavish gifts for his wife and mistress, the union’s political director, “at separate Atlantic City shindigs within weeks of each other." Union corruption is nothing new, and Burrow’s and Dougherty’s trial details are relatively unsurprising. Those organizations have a long track record of dishonesty and exploitative tactics, such as forcing a company’s employees to pay union dues or strong-arming the city of Philadelphia to use union contractors for projects.
Ex-union boss John Dougherty’s embezzlement trial starts this week. He could get jail time.
October 31, 2023 // Dougherty, who was once a hugely influential political force in the city and statewide, is trying to avoid another loss in court — and possible jail time — following his conviction on corruption charges two years ago. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has already secured guilty pleas in the embezzlement case from four former employees of the union he led, Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). They’re now trying to convict Dougherty and a codefendant, former union president Brian Burrows, who will be tried separately.
An FBI informant in Johnny Doc’s inner circle didn’t violate his right to fair trial, judge says
August 3, 2023 // Though recording someone outside of a law enforcement investigation without their consent is a crime in Pennsylvania, the FBI, based on those tapes, enlisted the cooperator to begin working as an official confidential informant out of concern that statements such as those were an attempt by Dougherty to intimidate witnesses in the case against him, Blake said. And for the next several months, the informant continued to record Dougherty at union meetings up to and throughout his 2021 trial. The labor leader learned of the mole’s existence only after his conviction and as he prepared for a second trial on extortion charges related to threats he allegedly made to a union contractor who tried to fire his nephew.
Convicted former Philadelphia councilman reports to federal prison in bribery case
April 19, 2023 // Former Philadelphia City Councilman Bobby Henon reported to federal prison at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey on Monday to begin serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence. Henon was convicted of bribery in a case tied to former labor leader John Dougherty. Henon was backed by union money and support during his time on council, even drawing a salary from Local 98, in addition to his city paycheck.
PHILADELPHIA: Former City Councilmember Bobby Henon is facing sentencing for a bribery conviction. Here’s what you should know.
March 1, 2023 // A former electrician and the political director of the politically powerful union of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, he was elected to Council in 2011 backed by union money and support. While in office, Henon remained on Local 98′s payroll — at a salary of more than $70,000 per year — in addition to collecting his $140,000 paycheck from the city. At Dougherty’s urging, the jury found, Henon drafted and, in some cases, introduced legislation — aimed at punishing a towing company that had attempted to tow the union leader’s car and at supporting his bid to become head of the Building Trades Council, an umbrella group of the city’s labor unions. He granted Dougherty outsized influence during negotiations over the city’s 15-year franchise agreement with Comcast, a potentially lucrative deal for Local 98′s members. Henon was also convicted of a separate bribery scheme in which he extorted a $5,000 bribe in the form of a campaign contribution from the Communication Workers of America, when the union in 2015 needed his help in an ongoing dispute with Verizon. Among those pledging their support: former Gov. Ed Rendell, AFL-CIO President Pat Eiding, Local 98 spokesperson Frank Keel, former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery, City Commissioner Lisa Deeley, and City Councilmembers Mark Squilla and Michael Driscoll. Driscoll was elected to Henon’s Council seat in a special election following his conviction in 2021.
One of Johnny Doc’s closest allies pleaded guilty weeks before the labor leader’s next trial — and she’s not alone
December 19, 2022 // The political director of the city’s powerful electrician’s union and a close confidante of former labor leader John Dougherty pleaded guilty Monday to federal fraud charges just weeks before she was scheduled to stand trial alongside him and four others accused of embezzling more than $600,000 from union coffers. Marita Crawford, who has served as the face of Local 98 the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ influential political lobbying operation for more than a decade, resigned her postition and admitted in court to using union finds to pay for a 2015 hotel stay on a personal trip to watch the Belmont Stakes and for pricey birthday dinners for herself and Dougherty. The plea deal she struck with prosecutors will not require her to cooperate with investigators or testify against Dougherty or her codefendants. She will face up to 20 years in prison on each of the counts to which she pleaded guilty at a sentencing hearing scheduled for April. Prosecutors in recent weeks have approached all the defendants in the case — including Local 98′s president Brian Burrows and Michael Neill, the head of its apprentice training program — with plea offers
The FBI informant in John Dougherty’s inner circle recorded more than 30 conversations with him
April 29, 2022 // In a court hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl expressed concern that the government had waited until earlier this year — four months after Dougherty was convicted on federal bribery charges in his first trial — to disclose that they had a mole working from within Dougherty’s union, the politically powerful Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Mistrial in Case of City Councilman Charged with Corruption
April 21, 2022 // Johnson and Chavous were charged with allegedly accepting bribes in exchange for political favors and influencing the work of Philadelphia city business.
Embezzlement Plagues Union Offices Around U.S.
February 18, 2022 // Since 2018, roughly a dozen UAW union bosses have pleaded guilty to taking bribes from vendors and/or misappropriating union treasury money. And last November, yet another UAW kingpin was charged with embezzlement. (