Last week’s conviction of John Dougherty, former business manager of a Philadelphia electrical workers' union local, was his second corruption guilty verdict. This time, another federal jury found the one-time business manager of union Local 98 and its former president, Robert Henon, guilty of conspiracy and honest services wire fraud. Dougherty allegedly spent union member funds on personal expenses including a birthday dinner, an entertainment system in a pub he owned and a trip for a niece and her classmate to a basketball tournament in Costa Rica.
Local 98 is one of the oldest in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and has roughly 4,700 members and a staff of about 80. Dougherty and others were charged with spending $650,000 of union funds as if it were their own money.