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Posted on 01/15/2012 2:21:12 PM PST by reefdiver
Mark N. Kirch, president and business manager of Operating Engineers Local 17 and nine others associated with that Hamburg-based construction union, have been named in a fresh federal racketeering indictment, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
It is the latest development in a six-year-old extortion investigation of Local 17, which earlier saw several guilty pleas.
The 10 were among those indicted in 2008 on similar charges. The latest, superseding indictment, accuses them of participating in a criminal enterprise which forced local and out-of-town employers to hire workers selected by the defendants, as well as threatening — and in some cases, committing — bodily harm, destruction of property and workplace sabotage at construction sites and against innocent bystanders, the prosecutors said.
As was the case in the first indictment, the second one accuses the union members of engaging in a violent scheme to extort jobs and compensation from employers during a 10-year period that ended in December 2007.
Those actions added millions of dollars to the cost of construction projects throughout the region, prosecutors maintain.
Named in the indictment along with Kirch, 52, are union organizer Carl A. Larson, 46; business representative Jeffrey A. Peterson, 49; retired business representative Gerald E. Bove, 66; and business representative Thomas Freedenberg, 55.
Also indicted were Local 17 members Michael J. Caggiano, 42; Jeffrey C. Lennon, 57; Kenneth Edbauer, 66; George Dewald, 54; and Michael J. Eddy, 42.
The 10 defendants were among union members indicted in 2008. Two others at the time have since pleaded guilty.
The latest indictment charges the 10 with conspiracy to commit racketeering, extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and attempted extortion, prosecutors Charles B. Wydysh and Anthony M. Bruce said.
A superseding indictment generally provides more information, charges and allegations, and often is used by prosecutors to put more pressure on defendants to accept a plea bargain. In the original indictment, all the defendants were charged with extortion, and all except Caggiano and Freedenberg were charged with racketeering conspiracy.
The charges in the latest indictment carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both. In addition, should a defendant be convicted of the racketeering charge, his interest in Local 17 would be subject to forfeiture. That would include managers accused in the case, prosecutors said.
Neither the defendants nor their attorneys could be reached to comment late Tuesday, but labor lawyers told The Buffalo News last summer that the Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that labor unions seeking improved terms and conditions of employment cannot be charged with extortion even if their efforts are accompanied by violence, property damage or similar coercive actions.
A federal judge in September denied the AFL-CIO's request to file a friend-of-the-court brief making that argument in the Local 17 case.
The newest indictment is a result of the continuing investigation by the U.S. Labor Department, Office of the Inspector General, the FBI and State Police.
Most Americans would loves to see more of this.
Who has a license to commit violence if they don’t get their way. Only UNIONS.
“labor lawyers told The Buffalo News last summer that the Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that labor unions seeking improved terms and conditions of employment cannot be charged with extortion even if their efforts are accompanied by violence, property damage or similar coercive actions.”
Looks like the mafia need to up the bribe payments.
Unbelievable.
Union demands made those jobs go bye-bye. The rest are soon to follow, I fear.
Unions are the soldiers of socialism.
All unions should be prosecuted under the RICO statues. They’re little more than gangs.
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