Harold DaggettThe president of the International Longshoremen’s Association, who this week went on a brief strike in a labor dispute that could have caused a shipping crisis across the U.S., has been cleared of federal fraud charges in connection with alleged Mafia ties to the same union. Was given.
Daggett’s attorney, his cousin George Daggett, said the 2005 charges were politically motivated and based on weak evidence.
“This lawsuit was a sham,” he told Fox News Digital. “People tell me, ‘You did a great job.’ And I tell them that a law school student could have won that case, it was actually originated by the Waterfront Commission in New York, and they hated the union.”
The Justice Department failed to convict – but the case had deadly consequences. One of the co-defendants, a distinguished Genovese family captain named Larry Ricci, disappeared in the middle of the trial and was later found in the trunk of a car outside the Huck Finn Diner in Union, New Jersey, 20 miles west of New York City. Was found dead.
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International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold J. Daggett talked about dockworkers at Maher Terminals in Port Newark, New Jersey going on strike on October 1, 2024. (Brian R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images)
Ricci’s lawyer Martin Schmukler told the court after disappearing from the hearing, “She has either been kidnapped – not likely because she would be a very difficult person to keep hostage – or she has been killed.” He was later acquitted in absentia.
George Daggett told Fox News Digital that the commission, at the time a joint oversight operation between the states of New York and New Jersey, pressured federal prosecutors to bring charges it could not prove.
This trial was a farce. People tell me, ‘You did a great job.’ And I tell them that a law school student could have won that case. It was actually drawn up by the Waterfront Commission in New York, and they hated the association.
Harold Daggett denied criminal charges and said he was a victim of mob extortion. He testified that another mobster, George Barron, held a gun to his head and threatened to massacre his family.
Huck Finn Diner in Union, New Jersey, shown in Google Maps photo. Suspected Mafia Captain Larry Ricci was found dead in the trunk of an abandoned car outside after disappearing in the middle of a racketeering trial. He was acquitted in absentia.
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“I was so nervous, I peed on myself,” he testified at the time, according to a New York Post Report. Court documents show that in a separate statement, he denied knowing that Barone was a Genovese “soldier.”
Prosecutors had alleged that Daggett had ties to the Genovese crime family since 2000, and the union has long been accused of giving no-show jobs and providing bribes to mobsters’ relatives.
Prosecutors alleged that in exchange for union contracts, the mob was to protect the careers and salaries of corrupt ILA officials.
International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Center President Harold Daggett speaks to workers protesting outside the APM Container Terminal at the Port of Newark in Newark, New Jersey, U.S., Tuesday, October 1, 2024. of every major port on the US East and Gulf coasts for the first time in nearly 50 years. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Justice Department could not convince jurors that the defendants were guilty of a crime,
Lawyer George Daggett said the affair began when his cousin sought financial advice from a Catholic priest and $18 million in union funds were placed under the care of the same money manager who ran Our Lady of the Lake Church in Sparta, New Jersey. Used to work with. ,
“So in the test, every time name of a dacoit Mentioned, the government had a big board, and they made a circle, (and) whenever any dacoit was mentioned, they put his picture on this big board,” he said. “The government’s case It was over, and I took Dad Cassidy’s picture and I put it in the middle of all those mobsters. So it was that kind of test.”
Dennis Daggett, executive vice president of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), speaks to workers protesting outside the APM Container Terminal at the Port of Newark in Newark, New Jersey, U.S., Tuesday, October 1, 2024. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Although the case involved charges of extortion and interference with commerce, prosecutors asked their first witness how many people he had killed, Daggett said.
“You knew it was all downhill for the government after that,” he said.
After Ricky’s disappearance, his attorney continues to work on his behalf in the lawsuit and clear his name.
Dockworkers gather at the Bayport Container Terminal in Seabrook, Texas on October 1, 2024. (Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images)
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“What happened was not a good fact-pattern for the government, but the Waterfront Commission was working so hard that the Eastern District said the right thing,” Daggett told Fox News Digital. “Larry Ricci lost his life because, I think, people thought everybody would be guilty. There was no way (the verdict) could have been guilty.”
Another co-defendant, Albert Cernadas, pleaded guilty, but jurors found Daggett, Ricci and Arthur Coffey, another ILA executive, not guilty In testing.
No one has been charged Death of ResisHowever, federal prosecutors said they overheard a New Jersey mobster on wiretap discussing the retrieval of the murder weapon with his son. That man, Michael Coppola, was sent to prison in another RICO case, involving ILA bribery, identity fraud and the 1977 murder of a man named John “Johnny Cox” Lardiere.
According to court documents, prosecutors also indicated that Ricci’s murder opened the way for other suspected mobsters to corruptly profit from the ILA.
Harold Daggett became president of the union in 2011. He is said to drive a yacht and a luxury Bentley car, live in a huge mansion in Sparta, New Jersey, and brought home more than $900,000 in union pay last year – $728,000 for being union president, and local An additional $173,000 for his previous role in 1804-1, which he left in 2011, Fox Business reported,
The ILA, which represents dock workers on the East and Gulf coasts, went on strike this week in a dispute over what the union called unfair wages against a backdrop of rampant inflation, including a rising minimum wage that exceeds union raises. And the danger is losing human jobs to automation.
A container ship sits anchored in New York Harbor following a work stoppage by members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, or ILA, on October 02, 2024 in Staten Island, New York, as it awaits the reopening of the Port of Newark. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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Before the two sides reached an agreement late Thursday, the union was demanding concessions from the US Maritime Alliance, or USMX.
The ILA, which represents 45,000 US workers at ports on the East and Gulf coasts, said the two sides had reached an agreement. provisional salary agreement Which extends the current contract till January 15, 2025.
“At that time (in 1977, when) things were bad, we went on strike for 80 cents,” Harold Daggett told Fox Business on Tuesday. “Companies only made $5 to 10 million, but since COVID And so far, before COVID, they’re making billions and trillions of dollars. It’s a completely different story, but they don’t want to share it. They would like to see a fully automated terminal right here on the East Coast so they can make more money. They’re crazy about money.”
This strike could have disrupted the US supply chain and caused a loss of more than $4 to the country’s economy. billion per day, according to an analysis by JPMorgan.
