(The following story by Harvey Rice appeared on the Houston Chronicle website on March 11.)
HOUSTON — The international president of the nation’s largest railroad operating union pleaded guilty Thursday to participating in a bribery scheme that included some Houston lawyers.
Byron Alfred Boyd Jr., 57, of Seattle is the last of four officials of the Ohio-based United Transportation Union to plead guilty in a plan to extort bribes from lawyers in exchange for access to injured union members.
“The investigation into union corruption and union officials who abuse their authority through bribery and greed will continue,” U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby said after Boyd appeared before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake.
Boyd admitted using bribes extorted from lawyers to gain control of the union.
He persuaded former union President Charles Leonard Little, 69, of Leander, near Austin, to resign in exchange for $100,000 and a new pickup truck so Boyd could assume the post, Shelby said. Little resigned but was never paid, Shelby said.
Little pleaded guilty last year, as did former union insurance director Ralph John Dennis, 51.
John Russell Rookard, 58, of Olalla, Wash., a top assistant to Boyd, pleaded guilty Wednesday.
Boyd, who is scheduled to be sentenced June 10, faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He has agreed to forfeit $100,000 and cooperate with prosecutors.
The indictment alleged that some union presidents have determined which lawyers were included on the union’s designated legal counsel list. That position was coveted because it gave lawyers easier access to injured union members in potentially lucrative damage lawsuits.
At the time of the indictments, 56 lawyers were on that list on the union’s Web site, including six in Texas. Five were from the Houston area. Shelby said five Houston lawyers were granted immunity in exchange for their cooperation.