June 26, 2017
As part of an ongoing federal investigation, the FBI wiretapped the phones of IBEW Local 98 union leader John Dougherty and City Councilman Bobby Henon, the Inquirer reports.
According to the newspaper, letters from federal prosecutors sent out to inform people they had been picked up by wiretaps show that they obtained court approval to tap the phones of Dougherty and Henon, as well as Local 98's political director Marita Crawford and Joseph Ralston, a now-former investigator with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office.
In August, federal authorities raided Dougherty's home, the Local 98 union hall and Henon's office.
FBI agents began listening to Dougherty's calls in April 2015 and started intercepting calls from Crawford and Henon about three and a half months later.
The taps on all four of them were kept until three weeks after the raids on Local 98 and Henon's office, at which time authorities also raided Ralston's Philadelphia office.
Ralston was no longer employed at the Attorney General's Office as of Friday, although the reason for his exit wasn't specified to the newspaper.
The Inquirer reports that the federal investigation is centered around union corruption. As the paper notes, Henon also has a salaried job with Local 98, and Ralston performed security work for the union.
Read the full Inquirer report here.
