Johnny Doc’s on the hunt for new lawyers as trials for embezzlement and extortion loom

With two federal trials looming, onetime allies of John J. “Johnny Doc” Dougherty are seeking to put distance between themselves and the former labor leader.

On Friday, his attorneys — who have sought to dump Dougherty as a client — told a federal judge there had been a “total breakdown in communication” between them. They described the idea of a continued relationship as “unworkable.”

That followed a request a day earlier from one of Dougherty’s codefendants to separate his trial from the former union chief’s out of concern that the negative publicity surrounding him could damage the prospects of others charged in the case.

Increasingly, Dougherty — the 62-year-old political kingmaker and former head of Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — has found himself running out of time and money to sort it out.

“It’s not exactly comfortable when your lawyer tells you he’s withdrawing out of the clear blue,” he told U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl during a court hearing Friday in Reading. “I didn’t put myself in this position, your honor.”

Schmehl — the judge who oversaw Dougherty’s public corruption trial last year, which ended in his conviction alongside Philadelphia City Councilmember Bobby Henon — had called the hearing to sort out who would represent Dougherty at his remaining trials.

The first, scheduled to begin next month, involves allegations he and five others embezzled more than $650,000 from his union. The other centers on extortion allegations that Dougherty threatened a union contractor who tried to fire his nephew from a job site in 2020. And he’s still awaiting sentencing for his bribery conviction, which could send him to prison for up to 20 years on the most serious count.

» READ MORE: Labor leader John Dougherty still has more legal problems

Last month, Dougherty’s longtime team of lawyers from the law firm Ballard Spahr — led by Henry E. Hockeimer Jr. — asked to quit the case, citing “significantly diverging opinions” between them and their client on trial strategy.

But Friday’s proceedings offered few answers on whether the judge would allow it and, if so, who might step into their place.

Dougherty reported he hadn’t lined up new counsel. Schmehl noted it wasn’t exactly clear what solution Dougherty had in mind.

“It seems … that you don’t want them to withdraw” from the cases, the judge said. “Then again, you don’t want them to represent you either.”

Both Dougherty and Hockeimer have declined to comment on the exact nature of the rift between them, though the attorney has said in court filings that the two haven’t spoken in more than a month.

» READ MORE: Johnny Doc’s lawyers ask to quit his case as two trials loom

Sources familiar with the dispute say their falling out stemmed from what they described as a “generous” plea deal offered by the government that would have resolved all the outstanding charges with a guilty plea from Dougherty in the embezzlement case and prosecutors agreeing to drop the extortion case completely.

Hockeimer had urged Dougherty to take it, said the sources, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The labor leader, who has maintained his innocence, wanted to continue to fight in court.

The Ballard Spahr team’s decision to ask to withdraw from the case “wasn’t out of the clear blue and it wasn’t taken lightly,” Hockeimer said Friday. “We’ve had a long relationship with Mr. Dougherty, and we continue to admire [him.] He’s done a lot of great work for the city of Philadelphia and the community, but we’re just not on the same page anymore.”

Dougherty has also cited money as a reason for their disagreement. He’s said he has already paid significant sums to Ballard but still owes much more just for his first trial last year. The prospect of two more federal trials would only add to the bill.

Since his falling out with his attorneys, Dougherty has sought legal advice from Lawrence G. McMichael, chairman of the rival Philadelphia law firm Dilworth Paxson, Hockeimer said in court Friday. But McMichael has said he’s not willing to represent Dougherty in court.

Dougherty told Schmehl on Friday he’d met with several other “high-profile” attorneys who might represent him but all of them wanted $1 million or more in exchange for their services.

“If I had the ability to get new attorneys I would,” Dougherty said. “I need a little bit of time to see what I can do.”

Schmehl appeared poised to give Dougherty that time, though he made no final decision on whether to let the Ballard Spahr attorneys withdraw at the conclusion of the hearing Friday.

He suggested he might push both of Dougherty’s trials into early next year — but said if he couldn’t find a lawyer ready to represent him by then, Dougherty would have to represent himself.

“Either you’re going to be your own lawyer or you’re going to get a new one,” the judge said.

Meanwhile, Brian Burrows — Local 98′s president and one of Dougherty’s five codefendants in the embezzlement case who have been waiting for trial for more than three years — asked Schmehl this week to sever his case from that of his former boss.

“Both the media surrounding Mr. Dougherty as well as evidence of his role in Philadelphia politics (which jurors view as inherently corrupt) will be unfairly prejudicial to Mr. Burrows and deprive him of his constitutional right to a fair trial,” his attorney Thomas A. Bergstrom wrote in a court filing Thursday.

Bergstrom cited the ongoing dispute between Dougherty and his legal team as yet another reason to grant his client a separate trial, saying the court filing in which Hockeimer first asked to quit the case painted “a dim picture of Mr. Dougherty as incorrigible and stubborn, refusing to listen to reason.”

So far, none of Dougherty’s other codefendants in the case — who include Local 98′s political director Marita Crawford; Michael Neil, the head of its apprentice training program; Brian Fiocca, Dougherty’s nephew, and Niko Rodriguez, a union office employee — has joined in Burrow’s motion.

Schmehl has not yet scheduled a hearing to consider the matter.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Marita Crawford as Local 98′s former political director. She still holds that title.