NYT: Ex-Labor Leader, Guilty of Racketeering, Recites a 45-Minute Catalog of Crimes

[Omaha Steve]

Death penalty?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/08/nyregion/08plea.html?ref=nyregion


Annie Tritt for The New York Times

Brian M. McLaughlin, 55, outside federal court in Manhattan after pleading guilty on Friday.

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: March 8, 2008

The former head of the nation’s biggest municipal labor council painstakingly detailed years of thievery from his own union and the state on Friday as he pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in federal court in Manhattan.

Standing and facing the judge as he spoke, the defendant, Brian M. McLaughlin, once a seven-term assemblyman from Queens and the leader of a million workers as president of the New York City Central Labor Council, delivered his 45-minute catalog of wrongs in a tone that at times seemed blasé and at other times abjectly cooperative.

But he never, even after the proceeding was over and he was asked to comment, expressed contrition.

“Do you have anything to say to the members?” a reporter asked when it was over, referring to the rank and file he stole from. To that, Mr. McLaughlin, 55, walking toward the elevator, replied, after a slight hesitation and a barely visible wince, “I don’t have any comment right now.”

Earlier, in reciting his crimes — contained in two counts encompassing 21 separate criminal acts — he sounded as if he were reciting a biblical passage about plague and destruction, so repetitive were the verses. The crimes took place from 1995 to 2006.

He said he had sent out letters asking for contributions to benefit members of Local 3, one of the 400 locals under the labor council’s umbrella, and “those contributions were at times used for personal purposes by myself and other members of the group.” Mr. McLaughlin was apparently referring to unnamed co-conspirators referred to in the indictment who were part of the racketeering enterprise.

FULL story at link.