Johnny Doc has a new lawyer, and his embezzlement trial isn’t happening any time soon

READING – The embezzlement trial of John J. Dougherty is once again on hold as the former labor leader has hired a new attorney, prompting a federal judge to agree to yet another delay in the four-year-old case.

Jury selection was set to begin Monday, with prosecutors in a 96-count indictment accusing the former labor leader and others of embezzling more than $600,000 from the coffers of the union he once led, Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. But in recent weeks, Dougherty has hired Philadelphia attorney Gregory J. Pagano to lead his defense and will part ways with former lawyers Caroline Goldner Cinquanto and Alan J. Tauber, whom U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl had appointed to represent him last year.

» READ MORE: Read more: Johnny Doc is, of course, at the very center of Saturday’s Local 98 testy leadership fight

And despite expressing earlier frustration with the amount of time it has taken to bring the case to trial, Schmehl agreed to another postponement during a court hearing Thursday. The judge said he’d set a new date “at some point in time” to give Pagano time to prepare.

The trial, expected to last several weeks, has been repeatedly delayed over the last four years, in part by the coronavirus pandemic, scrutiny over an FBI informant, questions of conflict involving a past lawyer, and a previous overhaul to Dougherty’s legal team.

Pagano — who has represented an ex-Philadelphia police commander, narcotics officers, a city mob leader, and a Delaware County man accused of hiding his past as a murderous Liberian warlord — is the latest lawyer to take on Dougherty’s defense in a rotating door of legal representation.

He replaces Cinquanto, who was appointed to represent Dougherty last fall after a bitter split between the union chief and his longtime attorney, Henry E. Hockeimer, after his first trial on bribery charges in 2021. At the time, Dougherty told the court he did not have the money to hire a lawyer on his own.

» READ MORE: The split between Johnny Doc and his former lawyers is getting messy. He hopes it’s enough to overturn his conviction.

Schmehl noted Thursday that Dougherty said he’d recently obtained the cash he needs to pay for a lawyer of his choice due to the recent settlement of a legal dispute with Local 98 over whether the union’s insurance should cover his court costs.

Citing precedent explaining that a trial court must make “every reasonable accommodation” for a criminal defendant to select his own attorney, Schmehl approved Pagano to lead Dougherty’s defense despite the delays it would cause. But he said this was the final time he’d allow the former labor leader to change lawyers.

Attorneys for Dougherty’s lone co-defendant who has not entered a guilty plea, Local 98 President Brian Burrows, pushed back on the postponement in court filings, calling Dougherty’s hiring of Pagano “yet another attempt to delay this trial.”

Prosecutors have accused Dougherty, Burrows, and four other union officials and members of spending $600,000 of the politically powerful union’s funds on personal hotel stays and vacations, pricey restaurant tabs, grocery bills, home appliances, and toiletries. Prosecutors also maintain Dougherty used Local 98 funds to pay for home repairs for several relatives.

In court Thursday, Pagano said he’d previously assisted some of those relatives in responding to a government subpoena for documents before Dougherty was indicted in 2019, but he said he’d never personally met or spoke with them.

Schmehl grilled Dougherty on whether he was comfortable with the potential conflict of interest posed by Pagano’s earlier representation of his family members, stressing to the former union chief that “whatever conflicts that come up, you have to live with.”

“Yes, your honor,” Dougherty responded.

Four of Dougherty’s codefendants have pleaded guilty to various charges tied to the scheme, including former Local 98 political director Marita Crawford; Michael Neill, the longtime head of the union’s apprentice training program; and two of Dougherty’s onetime assistants. All four are set to be sentenced in June.

Dougherty still faces one more set of federal charges for threatening a union contractor who tried to fire his nephew from a job site in 2020. Schmehl has not yet set a date for that trial to begin.

Separately, Dougherty also awaits sentencing on his bribery conviction that could send him to prison for up to 20 years. Last month, Dougherty’s co-defendant in the case, former Councilmember Bobby Henon, began serving his 3½-year prison sentence.