John Dougherty union embezzlement case: Day-by-day updates

Daily updates on the federal embezzlement trial of former labor leader John J. Dougherty.

Former union boss John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty talks to news media as he leaves the James A. Byrne United States Courthouse in Center City after his conviction in a federal corruption trial in November 2021.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

Updated July 11, 2024, 9:16 p.m. ET

Published Nov. 2, 2023, 4:58 p.m. ET

Former labor leader John J. Dougherty’s been convicted in a second trial two years after a jury found him guilty of federal bribery charges. This time, it’s for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the union he led for nearly three decades.

The legal peril for Dougherty — and his six codefendants — is significant. All face the possibility of prison terms on charges including conspiracy, embezzlement, tax fraud, and falsification of labor union reports. But the proceedings also serve as a referendum on Dougherty’s stewardship of the local he transformed through his leadership into the state’s most politically potent union.

Throughout his 2021 corruption trial, he defended his actions by maintaining that everything he did was in service to advancing the interests of Local 98′s members. Prosecutors say, however, he was stealing from the union the entire time.

Here’s a recap of the daily developments from the November 2023 trial and recent coverage of the case:

Sentencings

July 11: Dougherty — a towering figure who for decades dominated the arenas of politics and organized labor in Philadelphia — was sentenced to six years in prison for his convictions on both bribery and embezzlement charges. He apologized to Local 98′s members. And — in a stunning moment from a man who has maintained his innocence for years and insisted he’d be vindicated in court — he told the judge he took “full responsibility” for his crimes. “I knew better,” Dougherty said. “I let the lines get blurred. I got over my head. … I’m responsible. I’m the boss.” Read more: Full story | As it happened

June 27: Former Local 98 president Brian Burrows was sentenced to four years in prison for what the judge described as his “egregious breach” of the trust union members had placed in him. Burrows accepted no responsibility during a meandering, 45-minute address to the court. Instead, he insisted the money he’d put back into the pockets of Local 98′s members during his tenure as president far outweighed the amount he’d been convicted of stealing from them. Read more: Full story

March 4: Dougherty’s nephew Brian Fiocca, who served as his personal assistant and driver, was sentenced to three years’ probation as the judge compared him to prey “caught up in a spider web” spun by his uncle. Fiocca pleaded guilty in 2022 to embezzling union assets, and admitted he’d charged groceries, takeout meals, gifts and household goods for himself as well as a $470 washing machine for his mother on Local 98 cards. Read more: Full story

Feb. 22: Niko Rodriguez, Dougherty’s former driver and assistant at Local 98, was sentenced to three years’ probation. He pleaded guilty in 2022 to embezzling union assets, and admitted he’d spent much of his workdays running personal errands for Dougherty, and using his boss’ Local 98 union credit card to buy more than $1,000 in goods for himself including groceries from Target, baby food, and diapers, and a mattress. Read more: Full story

Feb. 21: Marita Crawford, the union’s longtime political director, who with Dougherty helped transform Local 98 into the state’s most politically powerful labor union, was sentenced to 15 days behind bars for stealing from the workers whose interests she’d been hired to represent. Crawford pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges in 2022 and agreed to repay nearly $12,000 spent over several years on expenses such as hotel stays, hair and makeup services, birthday dinners for herself and Dougherty. Read more: Full story

Feb. 20: Michael Neill, the former head of Local 98′s apprentice training program, became the first of six Dougherty allies to face sentencing for his role in stealing more than $600,000 from the union — a crime that netted him 13 months in prison. Neill pleaded guilty in 2022 to having misspent more than $92,000 from union coffers to fund repairs and renovations to his home and businesses in South Philadelphia. Read more: Full story

Verdict

Day 20, Dec. 7: The jury found Dougherty guilty on nearly all of the charges of conspiracy, embezzlement, falsification of documents, and wire and tax fraud charges he faced, delivering his second felony conviction in as many years and casting a devastating blow to his legacy as one of the region’s most transformative labor leaders. The panel took roughly 14 hours over three days to reach their decision. They also found former Local 98 president Brian Burrows guilty of 21 of the 24 counts with which he was charged. Read more: Full story | As it happened

The verdict: What the jury decided on each count in the case against Dougherty and Burrows. Read more: Full story

What’s next? Will Dougherty go to prison? For how long and when? And what about Dougherty’s third trial on extortion charges scheduled for 2024? We answer all your questions about the verdict and its aftermath. Read more: Full story

Jury deliberations

Day 19, Dec. 6: Jurors spent the day poring over evidence and wrestling with one charge, in particular, but failed to reach a verdict after a second day of deliberations. Still, as the day ended, signs of progress emerged. Lawyers for Dougherty’s codefendant Brian Burrows said the panel had indicated in messages sent to the judge before the end of the day that it was close to rendering a decision. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 18, Dec. 5: Jurors began their deliberations but did not reach a verdict after roughly 4½ hours of discussion. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl handed the case to the panel of seven women and five men after spending the morning instructing them on the relevant law. The panel spent most of the afternoon cloistered in silence, occasionally sending requests to the judge to see certain pieces of evidence, which Schmehl and the lawyers discussed privately in his chambers. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Closing arguments

Day 17, Dec. 4: In their final pitches to jurors, lawyers on both sides fought to cement two vastly different portraits of the ex-labor leader in the minds of jurors. Prosecutors painted Dougherty as little more than a hypocrite and a thief — a man who publicly boasted of working tirelessly on behalf of his union, Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, while secretly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from its members. The defense shot back, questioning why Local 98′s members would have reelected him to lead them again and again if they felt they’d were being ripped off. They did it, said lawyer Greg Pagano, because Dougherty, an indefatigable advocate, “built their union up from nothing.” Read more: Full story | As it happened

Testimony

The evidence the jury didn’t hear: In the months following his 2019 indictment, Dougherty was repeatedly caught on tape threatening to “beat up,” sue, or “run over” potential witnesses against him — and in one case urged members of his union to put a suspected turncoat in their ranks “under the water,” prosecutors said in court filings. Government lawyers contended that those threats — secretly recorded in 2019 and 2020 by an FBI informant inside the ex-union chief’s inner circle — are indicative of Dougherty’s guilt and his use of mob-like intimidation tactics to bully those close to him into silence. But prosecutors never played them in court before resting their case against the former labor leader Thursday. Defense lawyers have previously denied those recorded statements were an attempt to intimidate anyone and have accused the government of using them to unfairly taint Dougherty in jurors’ eyes. Read more: Full story

Day 16, Nov. 30: After 33 witnesses and 15 days of testimony, the case drew closer to its conclusion, as both sides announced they were done presenting evidence in the case. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl dismissed the jury of seven women and five men for the week, instructing them to return to hear closing arguments and begin their deliberations next week. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 15, Nov. 29: Accountants repeatedly warned Local 98 about its lax financial controls in the years leading up to the indictment of Dougherty and Burrows. But those warnings largely went unheeded, government witnesses testified. The FBI’s lead investigator on the case also testified that Dougherty wasn’t just fleecing his union. He also stole nearly $2,500 from a political action committee associated with South Philadelphia’s First Ward, an organization for which he served as ward leader between 2010 and 2015. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 14, Nov. 28: With prosecutors nearing the end of their case, tension in the courtroom grew palpable. Testimony from one witness — former Local 98 business agent Brian Stevenson — prompted a commotion from Dougherty’s supporters in the courtroom, highlighting paranoia that has plagued the ex-union chief’s inner circle for months about possible turncoats within their ranks. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 13, Nov. 27: As the trial resumed after a Thanksgiving break, prosecutors narrowed their focus to the roughly $2.6 million in sports and concert tickets Local 98 bought between 2014 and 2016. While the defense noted the vast majority of those went to union members or business and political leaders with whom the union was trying to curry favor, government witnesses said Dougherty misspent thousands of dollars doling out tickets to performances by Taylor Swift, Rihanna and others to his family and friends. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 12, Nov. 21: Prosecutors shifted focus as they closed out the third week of their case from the pricey dinners, home renovations, and thousands of dollars-worth of groceries and goods they say Dougherty bought with Local 98 money to what they’ve described as another aspect of his graft: his use of union money and manpower to dispense with personal chores. From shoveling sidewalks outside his brother Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Kevin Dougherty’s home after a 2016 blizzard to ferrying his wife to yoga classes, witnesses said that seemingly no task was small enough to give Dougherty pause before he delegated it to Local 98 staffers or paid for professionals to do it with union funds. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 11, Nov. 20: When Dougherty’s niece in 2015 needed help paying for a college trip to play basketball in Costa Rica, he called up his friend Jim Kenney to lament his role as a provider to many. “There’s things I pay for people around me every week,” the union chief said on a wiretapped recording of the call played in court Monday. “Who they gonna go to? They’re gonna come to me.” Dougherty has painted himself throughout his trial as unstinting when it came to providing for family. But prosecutors sought to show through testimony Monday that — whether it was his niece’s basketball trip abroad or jaunts to New York for his father to bet on horse races — Dougherty’s largesse was often paid for on the union’s dime. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 10, Nov. 17: Prosecutors closed out the second week of testimony in their case with a series of witnesses who benefitted — knowingly or not — from what the government has described as Dougherty’s free spending of union money. They included the ex-union chief’s niece, Maureen T. Fiocca, and a close family friend, Keeley Peltz, both of whom prosecutors say received pay for hours they did not work while employed part-time at Local 98 while attending college. Jurors also heard from a former union political consultant who prosecutors say Dougherty paid $5,000 to accompany his then-girlfriend on a personal trip to Florida. But that witness didn’t exactly agree with the government’s view of that payment, insisting on the witness stand that that wasn’t what the money was for. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 9, Nov. 16: Throughout their federal embezzlement trial, Dougherty and Burrows have challenged accusations they stole thousands of dollars from the union by pointing to the auditors, accountants, and other recordkeepers who annually reviewed its finances and flagged no significant issues. But as the proceedings entered their ninth day Thursday, prosecutors aimed to expose those safeguards as little more than rubber-stamps. Jurors heard from Michael Mascuilli, the former recording secretary of Local 98′s executive board, who testified that the governing body was routinely asked to approve invoice payments only after those bills had been paid. The auditor for Doc’s Union Pub, a side business Burrows ran, also said he received incomplete information from the ex-union president and his business partners while preparing the business’ tax filings each year. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 8, Nov. 15: Contractor Anthony Massa — the lone cooperator among Dougherty’s codefendants — wrapped up his testimony after more than three days on the witness stand. And prosecutors quickly went to work to bolster his story, calling in quick succession a series of witnesses that corroborated aspects of his testimony to the jury. They included one of his former employees, who said he’d accompanied Massa to repair and renovation jobs at the homes of Burrows, Dougherty and many members of Dougherty’s family. Two Local 98 employees also testified, including a former secretary who told jurors Massa had overseen renovations at her home, too. The bill, she said she was assured, would be covered by her bosses at the union. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 7, Nov. 14: As the defense got its first crack at key government witness Anthony Massa, they came ready to discredit him at every turn. Piece by piece, attorneys for Dougherty and Burrows attacked the contractor’s claims that he’d performed thousands of dollars worth of repair work at the ex-union leaders’ personal properties and billed all of it to Local 98. They sought to paint him as a liar who agreed to say anything on the witness stand in hopes of avoiding a lengthy prison term for the crimes to which he’s admitted as part of the case. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 6, Nov. 13: Burrows billed the union more than $65,000 for renovations done on his New Jersey home and other properties he owned, the contractor who oversaw that work told a federal jury as the second week of the trial kicked off. Anthony Massa, owner of Philadelphia-based Massa Construction, testified that for years he hid the cost of those jobs by padding bills he submitted to Local 98 for work he was simultaneously overseeing on union-owned buildings. The union contractor, who pleaded guilty to his role in that fraud in 2020, is the only one of Dougherty’s and Burrows’ five codefendants in the case who has agreed to testify against them. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 5, Nov. 9: Of all the meals prosecutors say Dougherty and his codefendants bought on his union’s dime, a series of summer 2015 birthday dinners were the priciest — and, for Dougherty, perhaps the most personally complicated. Government lawyers walked jurors through that $7,000 birthday bonanza on Thursday — the fifth day of the former labor leader’s federal embezzlement trial — laying out a four-month span that saw Dougherty feting both his wife and his mistress at separate Atlantic City shindigs within weeks of each other. In each case, they said, Local 98 unwittingly picked up the tab. Jurors also heard testimony from an electrician who renovated Local 98 political director Marita Crawford’s garage and later received a $1,500 check from the union. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 4, Nov. 8: As Local 98′s longtime office manager, Lisa Ketterlinus, testified for a second day, Dougherty’s defense sought to challenge prosecutors’ characterization of the ex-union chief’s haphazard accounting of how he was spending Local 98′s money as evidence of theft. Dougherty’s attorney, Greg Pagano, repeatedly suggested throughout his cross-examination of Ketterlinus that while the former labor leader was a sloppy record keeper, the money he was spending was largely meant to benefit the union or its members. Any mistakes that might have been made, Pagano said, were unintentional. Ketterlinus largely agreed. Though she later acknowledged her job duties were changed and she was banished to an office down the street from Local 98′s headquarters after she signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors and testified before a grand jury investigating her boss. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Day 3, Nov. 7: Local 98′s longtime office manager, Lisa Ketterlinus, testified that exceptions were routinely made for Dougherty when it came to following the union’s rules around credit card use. She told jurors she often had to harass him to complete expense reports justifying the thousands he would spend on his union issued Amex. While he often came up with business-related reasons for many of those expenses, there were just as many times he would offer no explanation at all. Still, his expenses were always approved. When Dougherty told her to do something, she said, she did it. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Opening statements

Day 2, Nov. 6: Prosecutors began presenting their case against the former labor leader with a dizzying array of expense reports, union records, and invoices from retailers that they say support their claims that he and other union officials misspent more than $600,000 meant to support the members of Local 98. But while Assistant U.S. Attorney Bea Witzleben, in her opening statement to the jury, described the misspending as a betrayal of the union’s members, Dougherty’s defense lawyers chalked it up to an “honest mistake” from a man who spent all of his time focused on bettering working conditions for those he was elected to represent. Read more: Full story | As it happened

Jury selection

Day 1, Nov. 1: A jury of seven women, five men, and six alternates was picked to hear the case set to play out over the next five to six weeks. Drawn from across the Philadelphia region, the panel includes an Air Force veteran, two local educators, a member of the Teamsters union, and a handful of tech workers. Dougherty appeared more reserved this time than during his brashly assured entrance to his 2021 bribery trial. Back then, he confidently predicted he’d be convicted of “zero crimes.” This time, he said nothing as he made his way into court. Read more: Full story | As it happened

The setup: Dougherty is set to appear before a federal jury in Philadelphia for a second time in two years, this time on charges that he and others embezzled more than $600,000 from the union he led for decades. Both Dougherty and codefendant Brian Burrows, the former Local 98 president, face substantial prison time if convicted. But the trial may also recast Dougherty’s legacy during his 30 years as a one-man center of gravity of organized labor, politics, and Philadelphia civic life. Read more: Full story