Feds ask judge to put former Philly Councilmember Bobby Henon in prison for up to 10 years

Bobby Henon could spend up to a decade in prison if federal prosecutors get their way at the former Philadelphia City Council member’s sentencing hearing next week.

In a memo filed with the court Thursday, government lawyers described the three-term Democratic lawmaker as an official who betrayed his oath and sold his office to powerful labor leader John Dougherty in exchange for a $70,000 union salary and other perks. They urged U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Schmehl to sentence him within a range of 97 to 112 months.

“The seriousness of the harm that Henon’s conduct has inflicted upon the city of Philadelphia and the public trust cannot be overstated,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank R. Costello Jr. wrote. “His conduct consisted of an enduring scheme [in which] he sold out his duty of loyalty to the people of Philadelphia.”

» READ MORE: John Dougherty and Bobby Henon found guilty at federal bribery trial, upending city politics and organized labor

That recommendation came as the former Council member, who represented Northeast Philadelphia on Council for a decade before his bribery conviction and resignation last year, prepares to receive his punishment at a hearing on Wednesday and as Dougherty — his onetime boss, more recent codefendant and the man Henon once described as his “best friend” — prepares for a second trial in April, this one on embezzlement charges.

But in their own filings Thursday, Henon’s lawyers pushed Schmehl to impose a much lower sentence — and consider sparing the former Council member prison time — saying he’d already been humiliated publicly and has suffered both financially and professionally.

He’s lost his jobs both in government and with the union that he and Dougherty turned into a powerful political force — Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the attorneys said. He’s also lost his pension and could end up owing significant sums in court-ordered restitution, forfeiture, and fines.

“There is no need to imprison Mr. Henon because there is no risk that he will commit crimes in the future,” attorneys Brian J. McMonagle and Catherine M. Recker wrote. “His lone foray into criminal conduct is not only an isolated occurrence but has had disastrous consequences on his life.”

» READ MORE: A juror in the Dougherty-Henon trial says it was a lesson in Philly government — ‘and it was appalling’

Should Schmehl impose a punishment closer to the eight to 10 years prosecutors are seeking, it would be roughly on par with sentences given to other Philadelphia-area politicians who ran afoul of federal anticorruption laws in recent years.

Former U. S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and former Philadelphia Treasurer Corey Kemp, both of whom were convicted in similar bribery cases, received 10-year sentences. A judge sentenced Ed Pawlowski, the former mayor of Allentown, to 15 years behind bars in 2018 after he was convicted of accepting payoffs in exchange for city contracts.

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In Henon’s case, prosecutors persuaded the jury that Henon essentially served as Dougherty’s puppet on Council — a tool by which the labor leader exerted his influence over matters important to his union members as well as to exact revenge against enemies both personal and professional.

When a tow-truck driver tried to haul away his car in 2015, Dougherty vowed before the truck had even left the parking lot that Henon would introduce legislation the next day to investigate the company for predatory practices.

The instructions he later delivered to Henon, according to wiretaps played at their 2021 trial: “F — them to death.”

» READ MORE: John Dougherty often told Councilmember Bobby Henon what to do. But was it a friend’s advice or demands from a boss?

Dougherty also turned to Henon — while running in 2015 to lead the Building Trades Council, an umbrella group of the city’s labor unions — and pushed him to propose legislation updating the city’s plumbing code in ways he knew would irk that industry’s union. The reason? Dougherty wanted something to hold over the union leaders’ heads to secure their vote in the Building Trades race.

Sometimes Dougherty deployed his control over Henon in ways that benefited his union’s membership.

As the city began renegotiating its 15-year franchise agreement with Comcast that same year, Dougherty insisted Henon hold up the bill until the company buckled to his demands to send more work to his union electricians.

Pledging to carry out Dougherty’s demands, Henon would later tell him: “I don’t give a f — about anybody, all right, but [expletive] you and us.”

» READ MORE: These were the key issues jurors weighed in the John Dougherty and Bobby Henon trial

And — in a newly revealed incident included in government filings Thursday, prosecutors alleged Henon used his Council post to pressure executives at deli meat purveyors Dietz & Watson to hire unnecessary Local 98 labor — at an extra $3 million cost to the company — at a plant it had opened in the Council member’s district.

Despite their convictions, Henon and Dougherty have maintained their innocence and vowed to appeal.

» READ MORE: What the jury decided on each count in the John Dougherty and Bobby Henon trial

Notably, in his sentencing submissions this week, Henon did not express remorse for his actions, though his lawyers took pains to note that he was not seeking to minimize the seriousness of the crimes of which he was convicted or their effect on the public trust.

“Mr. Henon was never motivated by greed or any penchant for political power,” McMonagle and Recker wrote. “Rather, his motivation for political work was always to help his neighborhood, his community, his city, his fellow laborers, and, later, his constituents.”

Their submissions included more than 180 letters from Henon’s family, union members and fellow elected officials documenting the good he’d done for his district and community during his 10 years on Council and throughout his life.

» READ MORE: Bobby Henon got some help from his former Council office as he looks for a lighter prison sentence

Among those pledging their support: former Philadelphia mayor and Pennsylvania 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.)

“The Bobby Henon I know is an individual who cares very deeply about making life better for our most vulnerable citizens and creating opportunity for the people who never had any before,” Rendell wrote to the judge, while also acknowledging that he knows little about the case against the Council member. “The best thing about Bobby is he didn’t do these things to gain power [or] self-aggrandizement. He did them out of genuine concern for people who need help.”

In addition to the prison term, prosecutors have argued Henon should have to forfeit nearly $208,000 — a sum equal to the pay he received from Local 98 during the period of the indictment as well as to cover additional health benefits and perks he received.

Dougherty, meanwhile, awaits sentencing on the bribery charges — a step likely to occur only after the conclusion of his remaining two federal trials.

» READ MORE: The guilty pleas keep coming in Johnny Doc’s embezzlement case as two more Local 98 members cut deals

Next month, he’s scheduled to take his case before a jury in a case alleging he and other Local 98 officials embezzled more than $600,000 from their union between 2010 and 2016. He also faces charges he extorted a union contractor who tried to fire his nephew from a job site.