PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A jury on Thursday convicted former Philadelphia labor leader and power broker John Dougherty of 66 of the 69 counts against him in his federal embezzlement trial.
Charges cover 2010-2016, when he was business manager of IBEW Local 98. He's convicted of using union credit cards for hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal spending — including cookie trays, groceries, restaurant dinners, Taylor Swift concert tickets, birthday parties for both his girlfriend and his wife, and HoneyBaked Hams, which he delivered to friends and family and wrote off as charitable donations — and of falsifying records and documents related to the embezzlement.
The jury found co-defendant Brian Burrows, former president of IBEW Local 98, guilty on 25 of 28 counts. Prosecutors had said Burrows was the person who instructed contractor Anthony Matsa to charge the union for work he was doing on their homes and other personal properties.
Dougherty is free on bail. Prosecutors asked that he be taken immediately into custody, but the judge said he was not a flight risk and he didn't appear to present a risk of harm to others in the community.
Dougherty said after court he's going home to take care of his wife, who is very sick, which he said is all he has been doing for the last six years. He is her primary caregiver.
Dougherty is set to be sentenced March 20, 2024. Burrows will be sentenced the following day.
Meanwhile, Burrows' attorney Mark Caston says his client will appeal and he adds that if anybody thinks that the 4,700 members of Local 98 are better off without John Dougherty, then they are kidding themselves.
Dougherty's attorney Greg Pagano says he is also considering an appeal. But Dougherty has one more trial — on extortion — that is scheduled for later in March after his sentencing.
Prosecutor Bea Witzleben thanked the jury for upholding the legal principle: “It doesn’t matter how powerful you are, you cannot take things that don’t belong to you.”