(Reuters circulated the following article on September 16.)
HOUSTON — Four officials of the United Transportation Union (news – web sites), including the current and past presidents, have been indicted on charges they took bribes from attorneys for special access to lucrative legal work for rail workers, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.
The officials got at least $477,000 in cash in the alleged scheme dating back to 1995, prosecutors said.
The 125,000-member union, based in Cleveland, and with offices in Ottawa and Washington, is North America’s largest for rail operating workers but also has members from the bus, mass transit and airline industries.
Three of the men — current union president Byron Boyd, 57, his predecessor, former president Charles Little, 69, and special assistant to the president John Rookard, 57, pleaded not guilty on Monday to the charges, which include racketeering, mail fraud, and wire fraud.
Ralph Dennis, 51, who was director of insurance until July, also pleaded not guilty, but was cooperating with investigators and intended to change his plea soon, his lawyer said in a Tuesday hearing.
“He expects to change his plea from not guilty to guilty in the very near future,” attorney Alessio Evangelista told U.S. Magistrate Marcia Crone.
The men were released on $100,000 bail each and could face up to 20 years in prison for racketeering and 10 years for each fraud charge if convicted.
Prosecutors said the four supposedly sought cash and other things of value from attorneys seeking to get on the union’s “Designated Legal Counsel” list.
Attorneys on the list got first call on filing potentially lucrative lawsuits for injured rail workers, who under federal law have no limits on legal damages they can receive.
Boyd said in a statement the allegations were “unfounded” and he would “pursue the matter to a final and full conclusion that completely exonerates me.”
The indictments arose from a federal investigation that began in Houston in 1999, prosecutors said.