No Verdict Yet as Federal Jury Weighs Corruption Case of Phila. Ironworkers' Boss
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- After an apparently rough four days of deliberations, the jury in the federal trial of ironworkers' union Local 401 boss Joseph Dougherty is in recess until Tuesday.
The jury had a couple of questions today: it wanted to rehear the definition of some legal terms, and it reheard a couple of secretly recorded conversations presented during the trial.
But there were no other surprises, one day after the judge admonished jurors after getting a note indicating some issue in the jury room.
Judge Michael Baylson did not disclose the substance of the note he had received from the jury foreman, but he lectured the panel that they had taken an oath to deliberate and must do so.
Defendant Joseph Dougherty, the former head of Ironworkers Local 401, has pleaded not guilty to using violence and intimidation to force contractors to hire union ironworkers. Several other members of the union have pleaded guilty and are testifying at Dougherty's trial.
Douigherty's defense argued that renegade union members acted on their own, committing acts of violence. But the government argued that Dougherty ruled over everything the union did, including the routine practice of, in union code, "night work."
The case is recessed until Tuesday because of the Martin Luther King holiday on Monday.