Former UTU President pleads guilty to Racketeering

[Anonymous]

Former union official pleads guilty to labor racketeering
(The Associated Press circulated the following article on January 25.)

HOUSTON -- A former official for a Cleveland-based union has pleaded guilty to charges that he took cash payments and other things of value from attorneys doing business with the union, U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby said.

Charles Little, 69, of Leander, Texas, could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and fined $250,000 when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sim Lake on April 9. In addition, the former international president of the United Transportation Union will forfeit $100,000, which the government says he received though illegal activity.

Little and three others were indicted by a grand jury last September on charges of conspiring to violate federal mail and wire fraud statutes and interstate transportation in aid of racketeering through commercial state bribery. He pleaded guilty to labor racketeering conspiracy.

Also indicted were union President Byron Boyd Jr., 57, of Seattle; former union director of insurance Ralph Dennis, 51, of Boone, Iowa; and special assistant to Boyd, John Rookard, 57, of Olalla, Wash.

In October, Dennis also pleaded guilty to labor racketeering.

The FBI and the Labor Department began investigating the union in 1999.

In court on Friday, Little admitted that while president from 1995 to 2001, he and other union officials at his request took cash payments and other things of value from attorneys doing business with the union. Little said he used the money to fund his campaigns and for his personal use.

Boyd and Rookard are scheduled to go to trial March 22.

Officials with the United Transportation Union could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

The union has about 125,000 members nationwide in the railroad, bus, mass transit and airline industries.