Ex-labor leader Johnny Doc faces trial again — this time accused of stealing from the union he led for 30 years

The last time John Dougherty faced a jury, he ended up convicted of federal bribery charges.

But as the former leader of the state’s most powerful labor union heads back to court this week to stand for judgment before another panel of 12 of his peers, he’s hoping for a different outcome.

Jury selection is set to begin Wednesday in Dougherty’s second felony trial in as many years.

This time, he’s accused — along with five others — of embezzling more than $650,000 from Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the union he led for nearly three decades.

Prosecutors say he spent the money on home renovations, pricey dinners, concert tickets, and groceries for himself, his family, and friends — enriching them all at the expense of his union’s members even as he held himself out as a tireless advocate for their interests.

“John Dougherty is not pro-union and does not honestly represent the interests of all of [Local] 98′s membership,” Michael T. Harpster, then the head of the FBI’s Philadelphia office, remarked in 2019, when the charges against the union chief were unsealed.

Dougherty, 63, has denied the allegations and vowed he’ll be acquitted of the more than 90 counts — including conspiracy, embezzlement, wire and tax fraud, and falsification of union records — he’s facing as soon as he can present his case in court.

But since his 2021 conviction on public corruption charges alongside former City Councilmember Bobby Henon, the backdrop against which this next trial is expected to play out has significantly shifted.

Back then, Dougherty enjoyed the support of many in his 5,000-member union — a local he transformed over decades into a political powerhouse that has helped elect mayors, governors, state legislators, members of Congress, and more than 60 judges including his brother, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Kevin Dougherty.

This time, Local 98′s leadership has turned against him.

Mark Lynch Jr., the man Dougherty handpicked as his successor as the union’s business manager when he resigned two years ago, broke ranks earlier this year and successfully ran for reelection to the post on a platform of distancing the union from Dougherty’s iron grip.

The local canceled Dougherty’s cell phone plan, locked him out of his email, and fought him in a yearslong legal battle over whether its insurance carrier should have to cover his legal bills — a court fight Dougherty eventually won.

Lynch, through a spokesperson, declined to comment on the upcoming trial. But he’s not the only union official no longer standing by Dougherty’s side.

All five of the Local 98 leaders and members indicted in the embezzlement case with Dougherty had vowed to hold firm before the 2021 trial.

Since then, all but one — Local 98′s former president, Brian Burrows — have struck deals with prosecutors and pleaded guilty, though none of their plea agreements requires them to testify against the former union leaders.

Dougherty rejected his own plea offer last year — a deal that would have resolved this case, the bribery conviction, and another set of charges alleging he extorted a contractor who fired his nephew — with a prison recommendation from prosecutors that sources familiar with matter described as “generous.”

That decision prompted a falling out with his longtime lawyer, Henry E. Hockeimer Jr., who led the labor leader’s defense during his bribery trial. That means, as Dougherty returns to court this week he’ll be accompanied by a new attorney, too.

Greg Pagano — whose past clients include ex-Philadelphia police commander Carl Holmes, Philly mobster Anthony “Ant” Staino Jr., and a Mohammed Jabateh, the Delaware County man sentenced to 30 years in prison for hiding his past as a murderous Liberian warlord — is the third lead lawyer to represent Dougherty since he was indicted in 2019.

So far, Pagano has remained tight-lipped about the defense he intends to present in the proceedings set to play out over the next six weeks.

In recent court filings, he’s described the FBI’s investigation as tainted by conflicts of interest and larded with extraneous uncharged allegations meant to paint Dougherty as guilty in front of the jury.

But like last time, prosecutors are confident they have the evidence to secure a conviction. And they’re coming to court armed with receipts — literally.

Much of the government’s evidence is expected to come in the form of invoices, union expense reports, and credit card records outlining hundreds of thousands of dollars in purchases Dougherty, Burrows, and the others allegedly made with Local 98 money.

They range from the pricey — a $1,400 birthday dinner at an Atlantic City restaurant, nearly $7,000 in clothing at Brooks Brothers and Boyd’s, and almost $20,000 for TVs and a security system for Dougherty’s daughter — to the mundane — over $8,000 spent over dozens of trips to Target on items like dog food, breakfast cereal, makeup, and baby supplies.

“Dougherty used his control … to repeatedly and persistently steal from Local 98 and put his own self-interests over that of the membership of the union,” prosecutors said in court filings. “He used Local 98 as his personal bank account.”

Takeout meals for Dougherty’s family from The Palm and other restaurants were regularly paid for out of union coffers and submitted on expense reports as reimbursements for food bought for union meetings or political strategy sessions.

In 2015, prosecutors say, Dougherty even had the union pay for Thanksgiving hams for his family and friends — a $274 expense, later expensed as a donation to St. John Neumann Catholic Church.

Tickets worth thousands of dollars for concerts by Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and Bruce Springsteen were charged to Local 98′s American Express accounts and provided to relatives of Dougherty and other union officials.

Union funds were also used to cover extensive renovation projects at the homes of Dougherty and his family members, Burrows’ house in Mount Laurel, and Doc’s Union Pub, the bar the two men co-owned in South Philly.

More than $6,000 went toward sending former Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams’ daughters on summer camp trips abroad. Dougherty had hoped to win Williams’ endorsement for his brother, Kevin Dougherty’s, 2015 bid to secure a Democratic primary nomination for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Kevin Dougherty, too, benefitted from his brother’s largesse, prosecutors say, receiving home repairs and snow-removal services at his Northeast Philadelphia home as well as an offer in 2015 of a union-paid membership to the Sporting Club at the Bellevue.

“I got a different world than most people ever exist in,” John Dougherty told his brother in a conversation that year caught on an FBI wiretap. “I am able to take care of a lot of people all the time.”

An attorney for the justice described him as “an honest public servant who has done nothing wrong” and said that he rejected his brother’s gym membership offer and never knowingly accepted any of the other benefits outlined in his brother’s indictment.

Another $4,000 allegedly went to bankrolling another relative’s trip to compete in a 2015 basketball tournament in Costa Rica.

“Well, who [else are] they gonna go to?” Dougherty asked in another recorded conversation. “They’re gonna go to me.”

Dougherty insists he has an explanation for each of those expenses — some were actually for union business, he says he reimbursed the local for others at the time, and in some cases, he admits, he slipped up amid his busy schedule of union work and used the wrong credit card but has since paid Local 98 back.

If those justifications don’t manage to convince the jury, he could be sentenced to an additional 20 years behind bars on the most serious count he’s facing.

UPDATE: This story was updated to include comment from Kevin Dougherty’s attorney.