(The Associated Press circulated the following article by Pam Easton on July 9.)
HOUSTON — Two former presidents of a Cleveland, Ohio-based union were sentenced to two years in prison Friday on conspiracy charges for extorting money and valuables from attorneys doing business with the group.
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake sentenced former United Transportation Union presidents Byron Boyd Jr., 57, of Seattle, and Charles Little, 68, of Leander, Texas.
He also sentenced former union director of insurance Ralph Dennis, 52, of Boone, Iowa, and former special assistant to Boyd, John Rookard, 58, of Olalla, Wash., to three years probation.
All four men, who accepted plea agreements with the government, faced up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
The union, which was created in 1969, has about 125,000 members nationwide in the railroad, bus, mass transit and airline industries. The case was handled in Texas because five of the lawyers who paid money as part of the scheme were from the Houston area and cooperated with prosecutors.
The FBI and the Labor Department began investigating the union in 1999 and indicted the four men in September.
Boyd resigned as union president the day he entered his guilty plea in March. He had served as the union’s president since 2001 when he took over the helm from Little.
Little admitted that while president from 1995 to 2001 he and other union officials took cash and valuables from attorneys doing business with the union. Little said he used the money to fund his campaigns and for his personal use.
The union’s executive board suspended Boyd without pay and appointed Assistant President Paul Thompson to oversee the labor group in the weeks leading up to Boyd’s plea.