Key ally of ex-labor leader John Dougherty sentenced to prison in $600,000 union embezzlement case

READING — The first of six allies of former labor leader John Dougherty to face sentencing in a $600,000 union embezzlement scheme was sentenced Tuesday to just more than a year in prison.

Michael Neill, the ex-head of apprentice training at Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was part of the triumvirate of leaders, including Dougherty, who have been convicted of leading the fleecing of union coffers to cover their personal expenses, including hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of home repairs.

He apologized to Local 98′s members as he stood before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Schmehl at a sentencing hearing in Reading.

“To this day, I walk down the street and they say, ‘I’m sorry for what you’re going through,’” Neill, 57, told the judge. “I say, ‘Don’t feel sorry for me. I’m sorry for what I put you through with my bad choices.’”

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Still, the 13-month sentence Schmehl imposed — which also included an order that Neill pay more than $131,000 in restitution to the union, as well as back taxes, fines, and other financial penalties — was a substantial break from the sentence of as much as two years behind bars that prosecutors were seeking.

The judge’s decision — at the first of three sentencing hearings scheduled this week for Dougherty codefendants — could offer some insight into how severely the judge is considering punishing the former labor leader when it comes time for his own sentencing in May.

Former Philadelphia City Councilmember Bobby Henon, Dougherty’s codefendant in an earlier bribery trial, also received a significant break from Schmehl, who sentenced him last year to 3½ years in prison on bribery charges — roughly half what prosecutors recommended.

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Schmehl justified his decision in Neill’s case Tuesday by pointing to the union leader’s years of community service and his decision — unlike Dougherty’s — to plead guilty before trial.

Still, the judge said: “I consider this extremely serious, Mr. Neill, because you held a position of power in the union. Fellow union members elected you, and trusted in you and you abused that trust.”

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Prosecutors described Neill as one of the Local 98 officials most responsible — along with Dougherty and former union president Brian Burrows, both of whom were convicted at trial in December — for years of systematic theft from the union members they’d been elected to represent.

“Nobody batted an eye,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Grenell said, “while thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars walked out the door that should have been in the pockets of the men and women who trusted” them.

As the head of Local 98′s apprentice training program, Neill was one of two people whose signatures were required on all checks drawn from accounts meant to support the training of new electricians.

But in pleading guilty to counts including union embezzlement and tax fraud in 2022, he admitted to routinely using that money to fund construction work at his home and businesses in South Philadelphia.

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In 2010 alone, Neill instructed contractors to bill Local 98 for repairs to a broken staircase at his house, termite remediation at Dougherty’s residence, and plumbing work at a now-shuttered Pennsport bar he jointly owned with Burrows in a building owned by Dougherty. At Neill’s instruction, the union also picked up the tab for remodeling at the home of the apprentice training program’s secretary, with whom Neill was romantically involved at the time.

All told, Grenell said Tuesday, union member dues paid for nearly $93,000 in repairs and renovations to Neill’s properties between 2013 and 2015.

“These three men just decided they were going to start treating this union like their own personal piggy bank,” the prosecutor said.

Though neither Dougherty nor Burrows attended Tuesday’s hearing, their presence hung over the proceedings — even as many involved appeared hesitant to mention them by name.

Neill’s plea agreement did not require him to testify against his former bosses at trial. Still, defense lawyer Joseph P. Capone told the judge there were others who deserved more of the blame for the theft.

He referred to Burrows only as “another person who went to trial” throughout Tuesday’s hearing. And even as he suggesting the ex-union president was more culpable, Capone insisted: “We’re not going to point fingers here.”

He wasn’t the only one to suggest that perhaps others were more blameworthy.

As Scott Myers, a Local 98 electrician, extolled Neill’s record of community service and creating opportunities for fledging electricians, Schmehl interrupted to pose a question.

“How do you reconcile the fact,” the judge asked, “that these $90,000 that should have gone to the apprentices and their training ended up going to [Neill’s] house and his real estate?”

Myers responded: “I don’t believe Michael would have made those decisions on his own.”

Two more Dougherty allies — his former driver and personal assistant, Niko Rodriguez, and Local 98′s former political director, Marita Crawford — will face sentencing later this week.

Dougherty remains free on bail after convictions for bribery and embezzlement in two separate trials. He is scheduled for a third felony trial — this time on extortion charges — next month.