Colleagues say there were two things Ironworkers Local
401 business agent Christopher Prophet simply could not abide: lazy union
members and nonunion ironworkers.
The lengths to which those twin loathings drove him have
now landed him a prison sentence of five years and three months.
Prophet, 44, of Richboro, pleaded guilty to counts of
racketeering conspiracy and extortion, and was sentenced Thursday for leading
several late-night sabotage raids on suburban construction sites that were
employing nonunion labor. His actions, prosecutors say, were part of a campaign
by the union to maintain its grip on city construction jobs.
Prophet, who oversaw the union's presence in Bucks and
Montgomery Counties, is the 11th member of the local to face sentencing this
year. Long-serving union chief Joseph Dougherty is scheduled to be sentenced
next month.
"I have failed myself, and I have failed the
innocent brothers and sisters of 401," Prophet, wearing a yellow Local 401
T-shirt and jeans, told U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson.
The sentence Baylson handed down Thursday came six months
after the judge rejected a deal Prophet had struck with prosecutors. Under that
agreement, Prophet agreed to plead guilty only if the judge would consent to a
five-year sentence.
But as Baylson explained it, he thought that Prophet's
role as a leader warranted a harsher punishment than those received by
rank-and-file members who had already been sentenced in the case.
Prosecutors have said that violence, intimidation, and
sabotage were so ingrained in the union's culture that willingness to
participate in such crimes often determined who received the best jobs and
which members rose to elected leadership positions, which carried six-figure
salaries. Union leaders exploited the economic needs of the rank and file by
pressuring them to commit violent acts.
"The testimony in the Dougherty trial made it very
clear to me that the business agents were key to the success of this
conspiracy," Baylson said.
In the end, however, the judge tacked on only three extra
months to the prison term to which Prophet had already agreed. He was also
ordered to pay $138,278 in restitution.
Prophet's lawyer Timothy J. Tarpey suggested his client
had escaped a harsher punishment because he played no part in several arsons
carried out by union members, including the 2012 attack on an
under-construction Quaker meetinghouse in Chestnut Hill. Those crimes netted
business agent Edward Sweeney an eight-year sentence in April.
And unlike the other business agents who have already
been sentenced in the case, Prophet never asked members under his command - men
he often recruited from the union's apprentice school and softball team - to do
anything he was not willing to do himself. His weapon of choice was a
sledgehammer, wielded to sabotage building sites for a King of Prussia Toys R
Us store in 2010 and a nursing home in Horsham in 2012.
"If they were going to put their lives in harm's
way, I thought it was my sworn duty as their leader to be there with
them," he said Thursday.
Still, as Prophet apologized in court for his actions, it
quickly became clear that he still held grudges against some former colleagues
who testified against Dougherty at trial. He accused some of lying and, as
prosecutors said in a court filing last month, sent several hostile text
messages to fellow ironworkers after the trial ended this year.
Tarpey described those messages Thursday as drunken
rantings as his client struggled to come to terms with his own actions, and
said they were not indicative of the man's true character.
After all, the lawyer said, Prophet had rushed to ground
zero in Manhattan to help clear the rubble after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
And after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, he organized a fund-raiser for the
victims.
Prophet, however, reluctantly conceded that his own
actions in support of the union constituted their own form of terrorism.
"I am guilty of doing horrible things," he
said. "I regret not saying no."
Source: Philly.com
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