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Latest Legal News from the Criminal Courts in Houston, Texas
May 29, 2007
FORMER TEAMSTER’S PRESIDENT SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR ELECTION FRAUD AND UNION EMBEZZLEMENT FOR TAKING KICKBACKS
(HOUSTON, TX) - Charles “Chuck” Crawley, 57, former President of the Teamster’s Local Union 988, was sentenced to prison for union election fraud and embezzlement and order to pay thousands in restitution to his former union, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today.
At a hearing this morning, U. S. District Judge Melinda Harmon sentenced Crawley to 78 months imprisonment and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $121,478 to Teamster’s Local Union 988. Crawley was convicted by a jury’s verdict in December 2006 for mail fraud relating to the union’s 2002 election, embezzling union funds through the election fraud, embezzling union funds by accepting a $20,000 cash kickback from a vendor, and making false entries into the union records. Crawley served as Local Union 988's elected president from 1997 until his ouster in October 2003.
"Every union member has the right to expect that his or her elected leaders will conduct themselves honestly, and with the best interests of the union membership at heart. The prison sentence imposed today demonstrates that Union officials who abuse their positions of trust for personal gain, and run afoul of federal law, will be held accountable", said U. S. Attorney DeGabrielle.
Crawley was ordered into federal custody without bond immediately following his conviction in December. He will remain in federal custody pending his transfer to a U. S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be designated later.
Crawley’s conviction was for devising a scheme to defraud the Local Union members’ right to honest services by using the mail during the October 2002 election by placing 362 phony ballots marked in favor of Crawley for union president into false return envelopes representing members of Local 988 Crawley believed would not be voting in the election. Crawley was also convicted of trying to ensure his re-election as union president by secretly increasing the number of votes registered on his behalf and was thereby not entitled to the salary paid him as president starting in January 2003. The embezzling union property conviction arose from Crawley’s use of the union’s computer system to generate the fraudulent ballots.
Crawley was also convicted of arranging and accepting a $20,000 kickback from the installer of a telephone system into the Union’s hall between February and June 2002 and causing false entries into official union records regarding the telephone installation.
James P. Hoffa, Teamsters general president, suspended Crawley as president of the local on October 16, 2003, and imposed a temporary emergency trusteeship pending an internal investigation by an Independent Review Board (IRB). Crawley was later permanently barred from the union in September 2004.
Local 988 is the largest Teamsters Union in Houston representing over 3,500 long-haul truckers as well as local cargo truckers including United Parcel Service, Yellow Freight, Roadway, and a number of bakery and car hauling companies.
Richard Hammond, who preceded Crawley as Local 988 president, was run out of office and sentenced to four years imprisonment following his April 1998 conviction for embezzling union funds. Hammond was similarly ousted by an international trustee in 1995. Crawley was elected as a reform candidate promising to restore the members’ confidence in the union and its leadership.
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