READING – John J. Dougherty, once a dominant fixture in Philadelphia’s labor and political scenes, was sentenced Thursday to six years in prison on bribery and embezzlement charges — capping off the former labor leader’s downfall from the helm of Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, one of the state’s most powerful unions.
From Dougherty’s prison report date to potential appeals and another trial, here’s what will come next.
» READ MORE: John Dougherty, a towering figure in Philly politics and organized labor, sentenced to six years in federal prison
When and where will Dougherty report to prison?
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl gave Dougherty until Sept. 4 to report to prison, a common practice to allow a defendant to get his affairs in order and which allows the U.S. Bureau of Prisons time to determine at which of its 122 facilities across the country he will serve his term.
Dougherty’s attorney requested that he be placed at FCI Lewisburg — a medium-security facility with a minimum-security satellite campus where the labor leader’s codefendants, former City Councilmember Bobby Henon and ex-Local 98 apprentice training director Michael Neill, are serving out their sentences.
There will be no possibility of parole, but defendants like him who are sentenced to longer than a year can receive credit for good behavior in the form of weeks shaved off their punishment.
Once he is released, Dougherty will have to complete 100 hours of community service and three years of supervised release, Schmehl ordered Thursday.
How much will Dougherty have to repay Local 98?
That remains to be seen. The judge has said he will decide on Dougherty’s full restitution at a separate time, but ordered the labor leader to pay a $50,000 lump sum, much of which will go toward his former union to replace the money he and others were convicted of stealing over a period of several years.
“I feel it’s important that the union be reimbursed, I believe restitution should come first,” the judge said.
Local 98 has also asked Schmehl to hold Dougherty responsible for the seven-figure legal bills the union racked up during the investigation that led to his conviction.
During a separate hearing earlier this week, the judge said it would take more time to sort out the union’s complicated legal fee request, and gave attorneys until Monday to submit their arguments and additional information.
What was Dougherty convicted of?
Dougherty was convicted twice: once during a 2021 bribery trial in which a jury concluded the labor leader had bought Henon’s loyalty and vote with a $70,000 yearly union salary and again in 2023, when a separate panel determined that Dougherty and former Local 98 president Brian Burrows secretly stole hundreds of thousands from the union members who elected them.
Both proceedings were part of the same sweeping indictment unsealed against Dougherty and other Local 98 officials and allies in 2019, but Schmehl later severed the case into two trials.
In all, Dougherty was convicted of 74 counts, including conspiracy, honest services fraud, embezzlement, and wire and tax fraud.
» READ MORE: What the jury decided on each count in the John Dougherty and Bobby Henon trial
» READ MORE: John Dougherty verdict: What the jury decided on each count in ex-Local 98 chief’s union embezzlement trial
What did Dougherty tell the judge?
Dougherty’s face flushed beneath his shock of white hair as he stepped to the court microphone Thursday. “I’m here to take full responsibility,” he told the judge.
“It’s embarrassing. It’s sick,” the labor leader said as he apologized to the members of his former union, saying that at some point during his nearly 30 years leading Local 98 he’d conflated himself with the union.
“I knew better,” Dougherty said. “I let the lines get blurred. I got in over my head.”
As he built his “mom-and-pop shop” union into one of the state’s most powerful, Dougherty said, at some point the unrelenting demands of the job “turned into something that got out of control.”
Referencing a $400 takeout meal from the Palm that Dougherty bought for his family and charged to the union’s tab as an election-related expense in 2015 — one of the scores of personal purchases prosecutors probed during his trial — the labor leader said that, at times, he “got sloppy” with his recordkeeping.
“I was busy,” Dougherty said. “My intention wasn’t to figure out how I could get a crab cake and not pay for it.”
Ultimately, though, he took responsibility for his crimes.
“I am guilty,” he said, adding: “
I’m 64. I’m tired. I’m at your mercy.”
What did the judge say to Dougherty?
Schmehl acknowledged what he described as the “incredible job” Dougherty accomplished in building Local 98 into a powerful union but said that somwhere along the line the labor leader had “lost [his] way.”
“You lost your integrity,” the judge said. “You turned something that was created for good, and ended up using it for illicit means.”
What did prosecutors say?
The six-year sentence Dougherty received was less than half the up-to-14-year sentence the government had sought. Still, after the hearing,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Costello said prosecutors “respect[ed] the result.”
”Sentencing is not a science,” the prosecutor said. “And in this process, most things are out of our control.”
Will Doughertyappeal?
Dougherty has vowed to appeal both his convictions, though his chances of overturning his 2021 bribery conviction grew slimmer last month after a federal appeals court rejected Henon’s arguments that the pair were wrongfully convicted.
Dougherty also has 14 days to appeal his prison sentence.
What sentences have Dougherty’s codefendants received?
Most of Dougherty’s codefendants in the embezzlement case pleaded guilty before trial. Neill, the apprentice training director, was sentenced in February to 13 months in prison. Marita Crawford, the union’s former political director, was sentenced to 15 days behind bars, followed by house arrest.
Niko Rodriguez and Dougherty nephew Brian Fiocca — who worked as the labor leader’s personal assistants — were sentenced earlier this year to probation.
Burrows, the lone Dougherty codefendant to take the embezzlement case before a jury, was sentenced last month to four years in prison.
Henon, convicted alongside Dougherty in the bribery case, is currently serving his 3½-year prison sentence.
Anthony Massa, a contractor favored by Local 98 who agreed to testify against Burrows and Dougherty at their trial last year, is expected to be sentenced in August.
Who supported Dougherty?
Dougherty’s family, friends, union members and elected officials packed the courtroom Thursday, spilling into an overflow room on a different floor of thebuilding.
Among those in attendance were Dougherty’s brother, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Kevin Dougherty; the justice’s son, Sean Dougherty, a Democratic candidate for state representative; Philadelphia City Councilmember Jim Harrity; and former Councilmember Jannie Blackwell.
John Dougherty’s daughter, Erin, described her father as a “complicated” man in an emotional appeal to the judge. But she said he never ignored the opportunity to help someone in need.
But there was no one her father cared for more, Erin Dougherty said, than her mother, Cecilia, who suffers from a worsening congenital brain condition that has left her bedridden and reliant on complex round-the-clock medical care.
“Ceilie is his sole purpose on this earth, and John is Ceilie’s sole purpose,” Dougherty’s daughter, Tara Chupka, later testified..
In addition, more than 240 supporters including former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, Sister Mary Scullion of Project HOME and City Councilmember Mark Squilla wrote letters to the judge on Dougherty’s behalf.
Will Dougherty face another trial?
In addition to the embezzlement and bribery indictment, federal prosecutors separately charged Dougherty in 2021 with extortion, alleging he threatened a union contractor involved in a pay dispute with his nephew Greg Fiocca. That case went to trial in April. But after the jury deadlocked following a marathon day of deliberations, Schmehl declared a mistrial.
Prosecutors have not yet said whether they intend to retry the men.
A juror later told The Inquirer that all but one member of the panel had voted to acquit Dougherty and Fiocca. The judge has set aside time in September should the government decide it wants to try again to convict them.
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