(The following article by Harvey Rice was posted on the Houston Chronicle website on October 3.)
HOUSTON — One of four indicted officials in the nation’s largest railroad operating union pleaded guilty Thursday to racketeering charges and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors.
Ralph John Dennis, 51, of Boone, Iowa, former director of insurance for the United Transportation Union, pleaded guilty in return for a government recommendation of a lighter sentence and the dropping of mail fraud, wire fraud and commercial bribery charges.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ed Gallagher said the government, which began its investigation of the 125,000-member union in Houston in 1999, had a strong case against the officials even without Dennis’ cooperation.
The government claims the officials solicited bribes from attorneys to be included on the union’s designated legal counsel list, which gave them easier access to injured union members in potentially lucrative damage suits.
Of the 56 designated legal counsels listed on the Cleveland, Ohio, union’s Web site, six are in Texas; five of those are in the Houston area. Texas has more than any other state except Illinois, which has seven.
Dennis, who still could get 20 years in prison and be fined $250,000 on the racketeering charge, agreed to forfeit $25,000 in illicit gains from a scheme to solicit bribes from attorneys who sought special access to union members.
In one case, a Los Angeles attorney flew to another state and gave Dennis $30,000 in cash, which Dennis put in the trunk of a car, Gallagher said.
Gallagher told U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt that prosecutors intend to issue a new indictment against the three remaining union officials in mid-November.
Also indicted in September were Byron Alfred Boyd Jr., 57, of Seattle, the union’s international president; retired union president Charles Leonard Little, 69, of Leander; and John Russell Rookard, 57, of Olalla, Wash., Boyd’s assistant.
All four are free on $100,000 bond each.
The 1908 Federal Employers Liability Act allows unlimited damages for railroad workers because their jobs are so hazardous.