‘Wanna catch a rat?’ Tension seeps into Johnny Doc’s trial amid testimony about sweeps for FBI bugs
The reaction one government witness provoked Tuesday from Dougherty and his supporters in the courtroom highlighted the paranoia that has plagued the union chief's inner circle for months.
When the FBI raided John Dougherty’s Pennsport home in August 2016 along with more than a dozen other sites associated with the union he’d led for nearly 30 years, the longtime labor leader outwardly sought to project he was unconcerned by the federal dragnet tightening around him.
“If they had a case, they wouldn’t be putting at the bottom of everything ‘Please call the FBI,’” Dougherty quipped to one of his union’s leaders, referring to agents’ request for public assistance with their investigation.
Inwardly, though, he was already harboring suspicions.
It’s “probably somebody on the inside,” he said in a separate phone call that day, wondering aloud whether someone from within Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers could be informing on him to the feds. “They’re asking questions that only people on the inside would know.”
» READ MORE: As it happened: Tension high in courtroom as ex-Local 98 business agent testifies in Johnny Doc’s trial
Prosecutors played recordings of both of those conversations, caught on an FBI wiretap, for jurors Tuesday in Dougherty’s embezzlement trial. And as the government neared the end of its case against the ex-union chief, it became clear that suspicions of a mole within his inner circle had not abated.
Brian Stevenson — the former Local 98 business agent on the other end of those 2016 calls with Dougherty — drew visible reactions from Dougherty and some corners of the courtroom as he arrived to testify as part of prosecutors’ case.
A small group of older men who have shown up to support the ex-union chief each day of his trial — mostly former union members and Dougherty allies — grumbled quietly among themselves as Stevenson was sworn in.
The grousing from the gallery only grew louder as Stevenson’s testimony began.
“Give me five minutes in the elevator with him,” one of the men muttered.
“Five minutes?” another responded. “Give me an hour.”
Dougherty, meanwhile, sat calmly, staring straight ahead.
As the court took a break toward the end of Stevenson’s stint on the witness stand and the business agent left the courtroom to confer with his lawyer, Dougherty turned, offering his supporters a raised eyebrow and a smirk.
They loudly cracked jokes from the back of the room when U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl later inquired where Stevenson had gone.
“Wanna catch a rat?” one of the men exclaimed. “Put out some cheese.”
Despite that commotion, Stevenson’s testimony was largely unremarkable. He told jurors he’d accompanied a contractor in 2016 to sweep for bugs at Dougherty’s home, that of his sister, Local 98′s offices, and other sites affiliated with the union after the FBI raids
Prosecutors have cited those sweeps as signs that Dougherty and codefendant Brian Burrows, Local 98′s former president, felt they had something to hide. What’s more, government lawyers say, the union leaders billed Local 98 for the $13,000 expense.
The defense maintains that Local 98 routinely conducted such bug sweeps, including one a month before the FBI descended on its offices in 2016.
But the reaction that Stevenson’s testimony provoked Tuesday highlighted the paranoia that has run through Dougherty’s typically tight-knit inner circle for months over turncoats within their ranks.
In the run-up to the trial, the ex-union chief sought several times to have the charges against him thrown out after it came to light that a member of his union had been secretly recording him for the FBI as he prepared for his 2021 bribery case alongside then-Philadelphia City Councilmember Bobby Henon.
» READ MORE: An FBI informant in Johnny Doc’s inner circle didn’t violate his right to fair trial, judge says
And prosecutors have asked the judge for permission to play some of that informant’s recordings in this trial. They say Dougherty can be heard on them threatening violence or professional repercussions toward anyone in his union who might consider cooperating with the government.
“Everybody is brought down by someone on the inside,” Dougherty purportedly said on one of those tapes — a recording of a 2020 conference call with members of his union — according to a recent government filing.
» READ MORE: An FBI informant recorded Johnny Doc threatening ‘rats.’ His lawyers say that violated his rights.
So far, Schmehl, the judge, has not ruled on whether he’ll allow prosecutors to play those tapes in court.
And by the time Stevenson finished his testimony Tuesday, the palpable tension that had hung over the morning’s proceedings had abated.
Prosecutors forged ahead with tying up loose ends of their case, including the thousands of dollars of Local 98 money they’ve said Dougherty spent on buying tickets to concerts and sporting events for family and friends — including Mayor Jim Kenney.
“Listen, do you have any Rihanna tickets left?” Kenney asked Dougherty before the R&B star’s 2016 stop at the Wells Fargo Center in a call prosecutors played for the jury. “I need three.”
A day later, e-mails displayed to jurors Tuesday showed, the union redeemed a credit for its luxury suite at the Wells Fargo Center with 14 seats and parking passes. Two of those tickets also went to Dougherty’s niece, Maureen T. Fiocca, prosecutors say.
When Justin Bieber’s tour rolled through town the next month, Fiocca texted Dougherty: “If you have a few extra Bieber tickets for this weekend think of me!!!”
Eight tickets to pop star’s show were purchased shortly after for $1,192 and charged to the union’s job recovery fund, prosecutors said.
In all, Local 98 spent roughly $2.6 million on tickets to sports games and concerts between 2014 and 2016 — purchases Dougherty’s lawyers have justified as a means to reward union members and curry favor with the city’s business and political elite.
But while they’ve maintained those ticket purchases were legitimate business expenses, Dougherty predicted as early as the 2016 FBI raid that they could get him into trouble.
As he joked with Stevenson in the phone call played for jurors earlier in the day about how weak he believed the FBI’s case to be, the ex-union chief cracked a joke at the agents’ expense.
“Why don’t they just put out a $100,000 reward,” he quipped, “[for information] that John Dougherty sat at an Eagles game with his family?”