The South Philly Review ran my Crime Beat column today on President’s Trump’s commutation of John Dougherty’s prison sentence.
You can read the column via the page above or the below text:
Former
labor leader John Dougherty, known locally as “Johnny Doc,” had his six-year
prison sentence for bribery and embezzlement commuted by President Trump, his
lawyer George Bochetto told reporters.
“President Trump has
signed a commutation so that Johnny Doc can be released from prison to take
care of his gravely ill wife, Cecilia Dougherty,” Bochetto told reporters. “Cecilia
Dougherty is in desperate need of care. Her money has run out for private
nursing, and she desperately needs John by her side.”
Dougherty,
a South Philadelphian, was the leader of the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, Local 98 prior to his resignation after his conviction in
2024.
“John Dougherty held himself out as Local 98’s biggest
booster,” said then-U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero after the 2024
sentencing. “But while he was backslapping his electricians with one hand, he
was ripping them off with the other. He cheated Philadelphians, too, through
his corrupt quid pro quo with Bobby Henon. Our city and its workers deserve so
much better than union bosses and politicians whose true priority is looking
out for number one. I want to thank all of the investigators, analysts,
prosecutors, and staff who partnered on this case, and, in doing so, stood up
for integrity and the rule of law in Philadelphia.”
I
recall speaking to a Local 98 electrician after Dougherty’s prison sentence was
announced. He was not a supporter of his local’s business agent.
“Johnny
Doc was more of a Democrat bigwig politician than a union boss,” the
disgruntled electrician told me. “He’s a crook and he got what he deserved.”
But Stu Bykofsky, the retired Philadelphia
Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, offers a look at another side of Dougherty in a piece on his
website, www.stubykofsky.com.
“If you know me, you know my North Star is
Obey the Law. I am a law-and-order guy, and crimes must be punished,” Bykofsky
wrote. “With that said, after his conviction for disgracefully stealing
$600,000 from his own union, jail time was appropriate. The question: How
much? … Before Johnny Doc was sentenced, I wrote a leniency letter to the
judge, reporting some facts His Honor probably did not know, and you probably
don’t know either - such as his extraordinary efforts to help the homeless,
handicapped children, gays, and more.”
Bykofsky noted that Bochetto, who is a
Republican, explained all of this to President Trump.
“I am writing this character reference for
John Dougherty, whom I have known for some 40 years. I am not here to exonerate
him for the crimes for which he has been convicted. I am here to present
information about the “other” John Dougherty, the man who has embraced and
supported charities serving children, gays, the homeless, the powerless,”
Bykofsky wore in his letter to the judge in 2024.
“As a veteran columnist with the
Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer, I had an understandable arms-length
professional relationship with him. However, I also had a personal relationship
with him during my 25 years as a board member of Variety, the Children’s
Charity. During those years, John Dougherty was president on three different
occasions.
“In 2009, the charity fell into a death
spiral after the Great Recession. It was in a $5-million hole, almost
impossible to climb out of. John Dougherty returned for an unprecedented third
term as president. There was nothing in it for him except risk — he could
have been in the cockpit when the charity crashed and burned. He reached out to
his friends, he called in some chits and probably wrote some others, and
he single handedly saved the charity that went on to offer
services to hundreds of children living with disabilities. John Dougherty gave
an awful lot of his time to Variety, but it was not alone. Through Local 98,
which he led since 1993, he showered financial and manpower support on many
other charities.
“His efforts have made many lives better, and easier, and probably saved some. I request that you keep the “other” John Dougherty in mind as you determine sentencing.”
Paul Davis’s Crime Beat column appears here each week. He can be reached via pauldavisoncrime.com.
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