Dougherty’s day of judgment | Inside Johnny Doc’s Trial

Welcome back, court watchers, to another edition of the Inside Johnny Doc’s Trial newsletter. The long July Fourth weekend is over, but we’re gearing up for another round of fireworks in court this week.

And by its end, John Dougherty, once considered a kingmaker in the worlds of organized labor and politics in Pennsylvania, will likely be preparing for prison.

Dougherty, 64, faces sentencing Thursday on bribery and embezzlement charges — nearly eight years after the investigation by federal authorities into his leadership at Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers burst into public view with a series of 2016 FBI raids.

But before he learns his fate, there are court battles looming over how much time behind bars he deserves and how much money he should have to pay back to the union he led for nearly three decades. There’s also been a string of other significant developments since this newsletter last showed up in your inbox.

Let’s get to it.

— Jeremy Roebuck and Oona Goodin-Smith (@jeremyrroebuck, @oonagoodinsmith, insidejohnnydoc@inquirer.com)

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⚖️ Prosecutors are urging U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl to put Dougherty behind bars for up to 14 years and order him to help pay more than $2.1 million to his former union. In a filing Friday, they said his crimes had “inflicted immeasurable harm upon Local 98 and the City of Philadelphia.”

👨‍⚖️ Former Local 98 president Brian Burrows — who was convicted alongside Dougherty in last year’s union embezzlement trial — was sentenced to four years in prison last month. In court, Burrows was less than apologetic for his crimes.

💸 Local 98 maintains Burrows and Dougherty owe the union more than $1 million for legal expenses it racked up as a result of their crimes. That’s in addition to the more than $570,000 they were convicted of draining from union coffers. Prosecutors are backing the union’s demand that its ex-leaders pay up.

🏛️ Meanwhile, Dougherty’s chances of overturning his 2021 bribery conviction have grown slimmer. A federal appeals court in May rejected arguments from his codefendant, former Philadelphia City Councilmember Bobby Henon, that they’d been wrongfully convicted.

🔁 And prosecutors still haven’t said whether they’re going to retry Dougherty and his nephew Greg Fiocca in an extortion case that ended in a deadlocked jury and mistrial in April. One juror told The Inquirer that 11 of the panel’s 12 members had wanted to acquit. Hopefully, the juror said in an interview, that insight into the stalled deliberations “will save some people some time.”

It’s the question that’s hung over Dougherty’s head since his conviction on bribery charges three years ago. It surfaced once more after another jury found him and Burrows guilty in their embezzlement trial last year. And as each of the ex-union chief’s codefendants have faced sentencing this year, it’s been asked again and again.

Just how much prison time will Dougherty get?

On Friday, prosecutors filed their recommendation with the judge: Anywhere from 11 to 14 years. That’s more than three times the stiffest sentence Schmehl has handed down so far for any of Dougherty’s six codefendants in his bribery and embezzlement cases.

We’re still waiting for Dougherty’s camp to file its suggestion with the court. But the punishments the judge has crafted for the others could offer some insight into what he will ultimately decide.

Consistently, Schmehl has given Dougherty’s codefendants less time than what prosecutors recommended.

In Henon’s case, the government sought up to 10 years; Schmehl gave him 3½. They asked for at least four years and nine months for Burrows; he got four instead. The government pushed for roughly two years for Michael Neill, Local 98′s former head of apprentice training; Schmehl cut that number in half. And though the union’s political director Marita Crawford could have gone to prison for up to six months if prosecutors had their way, the judge let her off with 15 days in prison followed by house arrest.

It’s possible Schmehl will follow that same pattern and cut Dougherty a break. But as the union’s top official and the only Local 98 leader to be convicted in both the bribery and embezzlement cases, he should expect more than the four years in prison Schmehl gave Burrows last month.

We’ll have to wait until Thursday to find out just how much more.

It’s not just prison time Dougherty is facing. Like all of his codefendants in the embezzlement scheme, the ex-union chief will be ordered to pay Local 98 back for the hundreds of thousands of dollars they stole. And it’s likely to be a hefty financial hit.

The union also wants Dougherty and Burrows to reimburse it for more than $1.5 million in legal fees it says it was forced to spend as a result of their crimes. Burrows is pushing back and presumably Dougherty, who has not yet responded to the union’s request in court, will, too.

Schmehl has scheduled a hearing Monday to hash out the issue. In the meantime, let’s break down the numbers:

$2,116,629.99: The total amount the government says Dougherty and his codefendants owe to Local 98 for the money they stole as well as legal fees.

$1,525,288.75: What Local 98 says it was forced to spend on lawyers during the eight-year investigation of Dougherty’s and Burrows’ crimes.

$591,341: The amount prosecutors say Dougherty, Burrows, and others stole from and should have to pay back to Local 98 for home repairs, pricey dinners, travel, and mundane purchases like groceries and home goods.

$128,503: The total that four other convicted codefendants — Neill, the former head of the union’s apprentice training program; ex-Local 98 political director Crawford; and Dougherty assistants Niko Rodriguez and Brian Fiocca — have been ordered to pay in restitution to the union so far.

It’s very important that the union get its assets back.

Every defendant gets an opportunity to address the judge at a sentencing hearing before punishment is announced. It’s an opportunity to show remorse or apologize — and potentially influence the eventual sentence.

When Neill was sentenced earlier this year, he apologized to Local 98 members, saying, “I’m sorry for what I put you through with my bad choices.” Crawford acknowledged her “mistake,” telling the judge: “I alone take responsibility.”

At his sentencing last month, Burrows took a different approach.

Rather than directly address his crimes or offer any apologies, he instead embarked on a meandering, 45-minute monologue featuring printed charts that he said explained all the ways he’d left Local 98′s members better off despite the money he’d been convicted of stealing from them.

He helped build Local 98′s health and pension funds, he told Schmehl, increased union profit sharing, and worked to bolster health benefits for his union members.

“That wasn’t by luck,” he said of the thousands of dollars that had gone back into the pockets of Local 98′s members under his leadership.

Eventually, as Burrows’ remarks closed in on an hour, Schmehl urged him to use “a little less detail” in his lengthy recap of his career. As Burrows began to wrap up, his attorney, Thomas A. Bergstrom, whispered in his ear.

“I accept the jury’s decision,” Burrows added, telling the judge that when he was 21 years old, he sat on a jury himself. “I took my chances in the jury system, and I’ll take whatever’s given to me. I’m not trying to hide it.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bea Witzleben later called the ex-union president’s apparent lack of contrition “disturbing.”

“It’s almost as if Mr. Burrows is saying if he saved [Local 98 electricians] $8,000 in fees here and some other money there, it was OK to steal from them,” she said. “I did not hear Mr. Burrows apologize.”

We’ll be listening closely as Dougherty — who has repeatedly maintained his innocence and lamented his choice not to testify at either of his trials — gets his chance to speak directly to the judge this week.

📅 July 8: The judge will consider the government’s push to force Dougherty and Burrows to repay $1.6 million to their former union at a hearing in Reading.

📅 July 11: Dougherty faces sentencing in Reading for his bribery and embezzlement convictions.

📅 Aug. 13: Burrows is scheduled to report to prison to begin serving his four-year sentence.

📅 Aug. 20: Contractor-turned-star government witness Anthony Massa faces sentencing for billing Local 98 for home repairs worth more than $380,000 at the houses of Dougherty, his family members, and his fellow Local 98 officials.

📅 Sept. 16: The scheduled date for Dougherty’s retrial on extortion charges alongside nephew Greg Fiocca — that is, if the government decides to proceed.

As always, we’ll bring you the latest from court during Dougherty’s sentencing and beyond. Check inquirer.com this week for full coverage of the proceedings, and we’ll see you again in your inbox next week. 👋

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