‘Angry words’ or a federal crime? Lawyers clash in closing arguments as John Dougherty extortion trial heads to jury

READING — With their final pitches to jurors Wednesday, attorneys in John Dougherty’s federal extortion trial sought to cement two vastly different portraits of the former labor leader with the panel charged with rendering a verdict in the case.

As Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Costello told it, Dougherty was an enabler, willing to overlook his nephew’s 2020 assault on a supervisor and use every tool at his disposal — including threats of economic harm — to keep him employed.

“No accountability. No responsibility,” the prosecutor said. “Apparently it’s OK to attack your bosses … especially if ... you’re John Dougherty’s nephew.”

The defense shot back, describing Dougherty as a man exceedingly devoted to keeping all union members employed and paid the wages they deserved.

“The notion that John tolerated this kind of conduct … that John would tolerate tarnishing the reputation of this union,” attorney Greg Pagano said, “is just not proven.”

That back-and-forth set the stage for jurors to begin deliberations in Dougherty’s third federal felony trial in as many years. It came after a whirlwind day in court in which the panel heard from a string of last-minute witnesses as both sides rushed to tie up loose ends in the evidence they’ve presented to the panel.

» READ MORE: As it happened: In closing arguments prosecutors depict Dougherty's nephew as a menace, while defense contends extortion case is built on 'passion and assumptions'

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl is expected to deliver instructions to the jury Thursday morning before handing it over to the panel of six women and six men tasked with deliberating the 19 counts of conspiracy and extortion lodged against Dougherty and his nephew Greg Fiocca.

Should they convict, their decision could extend the prison time the onetime leader of the state’s most powerful labor union — Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — is already facing after previous convictions on bribery and embezzlement charges.

Since the trial began last week, prosecutors have sought to convince jurors that Dougherty threatened a contractor who tried, in August 2020, to remove Fiocca from a construction job after he attacked one of his supervisors in a dispute over pay.

Audio of the assault, secretly recorded by victim Rich Gibson and played for the jury at trial, captured Fiocca’s rage as he slapped, choked and spit on the project manager and then threw him onto a table.

Within hours of the attack, the government contends, Dougherty had threatened to pull his union workers from the job site — construction of the Live! Casino and Hotel in South Philadelphia — and frustrate the efforts by Gibson’s boss, contractor Ray Palmieri, to land future work in the city if Fiocca were booted from the job.

“Ray Palmieri continued to pay Gregory Fiocca,” Costello said, “because he was afraid of what would happen to his company and his employees if he did not.”

» READ MORE: John Dougherty extortion trial: Day-by-day recaps

Fiocca’s attorney, Rocco Cipparone Jr., conceded in his own closing argument Wednesday that his client’s actions were “inexcusable.” But throughout the trial, he’s accused the government of overreaching with an attempt to turn a fistfight into a federal extortion case.

As the defense lawyer described it, Fiocca’s reaction followed months of harassment by supervisors who were constantly checking up on his whereabouts, second-guessing his work, and attempting to dock his wages under the misimpression that he frequently disappeared on the job.

“Don’t let them conflate being an imperfect employee with being an extortionist,” Cipparone urged jurors Wednesday. “He’s human, just like all of us.”

As for Dougherty’s alleged threats, Pagano noted in his closing argument, only one witness — a Local 98 foreman who spoke to union leader shortly after the assault and later conveyed that discussion to Gibson and Palmieri — could ultimately describe what exactly he said.

At the time, according to the defense, Dougherty was acting with incomplete information about what had occurred that day. It was only months later, when the FBI came calling, that Gibson revealed he’d taped his entire confrontation with Fiocca.

“John was under the impression that his nephew was getting picked on, that his nephew was being harassed,” Pagano said. “When John says these things … he doesn’t have the benefit of all the information we have in court.”

Two witnesses for the defense — Harrisburg lobbyist David Thomas and Local 98 political organizer Brian Eddis — testified Wednesday that Dougherty had gone to great lengths to reopen the casino construction site and provide jobs for his union members amid government-ordered shutdowns in the spring of 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s inconceivable, Pagano later told jurors, that the labor leader would then threaten within months to bring the project to a screeching halt.

“There’s no way John Dougherty — not in a million years — would have shut down this job,” Pagano said. “And Ray Palmieri knew that.”

» READ MORE: John Dougherty extortion trial: The case, explained

Whatever happened that day, Fiocca remained employed on the casino job for months. Local 98 members stayed on the job. And Palmieri — despite alleged threats from Dougherty to bar him from future work — landed several lucrative contracts in Philadelphia in the months that followed.

Pagano stressed those facts as reasons for the jury to acquit. But Costello, in his final words to the panel, insisted they were proof of Dougherty’s guilt.

“That’s the whole point of an extortion,” the prosecutor said, as he closed out his pitch to the jury. “You don’t have to threaten anybody after that. They’re afraid. You got what you wanted.”