Mistrial declared in extortion trial for John Dougherty and his nephew

READING – John Dougherty’s federal extortion case ended in a mistrial Thursday, offering an ambiguous conclusion to the embattled labor leader’s third felony trial in as many years.

After roughly 11 hours of deliberations, jurors told U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Schmehl they were hopelessly deadlocked on all of the 19 counts of conspiracy and extortion that Dougherty and his nephew, Greg Fiocca, faced.

“We are at a standstill,” the panel reported in a note to the judge just hours into their first day of discussion — signaling an impasse that would continue as their fruitless debate wound late into the night.

The inconclusive jury, said Greg Fiocca’s attorney, Rocco Cipparone, was the “right result.”

“We are hopeful for a not guilty, but we will take the hung jury at this stage,” Cipparone said outside the courthouse late Thursday night.

“It was a complex case. A lot of personalities, a lot of shortcomings in the government’s case,” Cipparone said, adding that he’s hopeful the government will not retry the matter.

Leaving court Thursday, John Dougherty offered little comment about the jury’s decision, but said he was in a hurry to return to Philadelphia.

“I’m going home to spend the last two hours of my birthday with my wife,” he said as he left the courthouse flanked by family and attorneys. (The former union chief turned 64 on Thursday.)

His lawyer, Greg Pagano, said the jury’s decision, though inconclusive, was vindicating for the embattled labor leader.

The judge has declared a mistrial in Dougherty’s extortion case after jurors reported they were hopelessly deadlocked for a third time after roughly 11 hours of deliberations.

The decision ends the former labor leader’s third federal trial on a decidedly inconclusive note.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Schmehl polled each juror individually – hearing from each that they were doubtful any more progress could be made – before releasing them and ending the trial.

The jury has reported it’s deadlocked.

Just after 8:00 p.m, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Schmehl announced he’d received a note from the panel earlier in the evening reporting that their deliberations were at a standstill.

A second, more recent note, said, according to the judge: “We the jury are still at a stalemate.”

After hours of closed-door deliberations, the jury has emerged with another set of questions.

In the first, the panel requested more information on whether Dougherty and his nephew “have a right to use tactics such as pulling a man off the job.”

In response, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl explained to the group the definition of the Supreme Court-recognized claim-of-right defense, which allows the use of economic threats or force to achieve legitimate union objectives if one is acting in their capacity as a union representative.

They’re still at it. Nearly six hours after they began their deliberations this morning, jurors remain cloistered away working on a possible verdict in the case.

Typically, court has ended around 4:30 or 5 p.m. each day. But as the clock reached that hour Thursday, signs emerged that we could be in for a long night.

Around that time, the lawyers returned from an in-chambers conference with the judge.

Jurors have emerged with their first questions after roughly two and a half hours of deliberations.

The panel requested the chance to review a transcript entered into evidence during the trial and asked U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl to once again repeat the elements required to convict Dougherty and Fiocca on the conspiracy and extortion charges they’re facing.

Schmehl repeated instructions he gave them during the jury charge this morning.

The federal extortion case of former labor leader John Dougherty and his nephew, Greg Fiocca, now rests in the jury’s hands.

Before releasing the panel to begin discussing the case, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl stressed to jurors that Dougherty and Fiocca have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them, and that the men should be considered innocent unless the government has proven otherwise, beyond a reasonable doubt.

“They started the trial with a clean slate with no evidence against them,” Schmehl said.

Good morning from the federal courthouse in Reading, where jurors in the extortion trial of John Dougherty and his nephew, Greg Fiocca, are expected to begin deliberations today.

But before the 12-member panel begins their closed-door deliberations in attempt to render a unanimous verdict, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl is delivering instructions to jurors on the law.

Schmehl told the jury it has two duties: to decide what happened, and to apply the law.

After six days of testimony, two dozen witnesses, countless text message transcripts, and one key secret recording, the extortion case against John Dougherty and his nephew is set to go to the jury Thursday.

Before letting jurors go for the night Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl explained he will instruct the panel of six men and six women on the law first thing Thursday morning before sending them to the deliberation room in hopes of reaching a unanimous verdict.

Dougherty and Greg Fiocca — who have both denied the charges against them — are presumed innocent until the government proves them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the judge reminded the jury.

With their final pitches to jurors Wednesday, attorneys in John Dougherty’s federal extortion trial sought to cement two vastly different portraits of the former labor leader with the panel charged with rendering a verdict in the case.

As Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Costello told it, Dougherty was an enabler, willing to overlook his nephew’s 2020 assault on a supervisor and use every tool at his disposal — including threats of economic harm — to keep him employed.

“No accountability. No responsibility,” the prosecutor said. “Apparently it’s okay to attack your bosses … especially if ... you’re John Dougherty’s nephew.”

Unlike John Dougherty’s two earlier trials — both of which played out at the federal courthouse in Center City — his third will take place in Reading, starting with opening arguments there Wednesday, once jury selection in Philadelphia is done.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl, who has presided over all of Dougherty’s recent legal matters, is normally stationed at the small federal courthouse in downtown Reading.

He was randomly assigned to the case when Dougherty was indicted on bribery and embezzlement charges in 2019, and has traveled to Philadelphia for both of Dougherty’s weeks-long trials on those charges.

John Dougherty, widely known as “Johnny Doc,” was once considered the most powerful union leader in the state, transforming Local 98 in his three decades at its helm into a powerhouse in the arenas of politics and organized labor.

Under his oversight, union money and manpower helped elect governors, members of Congress, mayors, judges, and members of City Council, and his once sleepy electrician’s union became a force capable of extracting significant labor concessions from some of the largest companies in the region.

But in recent years, Dougherty’s legacy has suffered a series of significant blows. He was forced to resign his post — as well as his leadership of the Philadelphia Building Trades Council, an umbrella group of building trades unions — after his 2021 conviction on bribery charges involving City Councilmember Bobby Henon. A separate jury convicted Dougherty last year on charges that he and six others stole more than $600,000 from their union.

For a third time in as many years, John Dougherty is facing a federal felony trial — this time on conspiracy and extortion charges.

The former labor leader and his nephew, Greg Fiocca, are accused of threatening a contractor and a job site manager amid a dispute over Fiocca’s poor job performance and pay. Prosecutors say that while working on construction of the Live! Casino in South Philadelphia in 2020, Fiocca assaulted his supervisor and that Dougherty later threatened the block the contractor’s ability to land future work in Philadelphia.

But defense attorneys maintain the government has blown the argument out of proportion, turning what amounted to little more than a fistfight during a heated moment into a federal case. Dougherty, they contend, was simply doing his job: advocating on behalf of a member of Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the union he led for nearly 30 years.