By Will Lester
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP)
-- The president of the Laborers union, Arthur Coia, was cleared
Tuesday by an independent hearing officer of charges he had ties
to organized crime but was fined on a separate ethics violation.
Hearing officer Peter Vaira, hired by the
union with the approval of the Justice Department in a 1995 agreement
allowing the union to police itself, made the ruling after an
internal investigation of corruption within the Laborers' ranks.
Coia was found liable for violating the union's
ethical practices code in purchasing a personal car in a joint
arrangement from a dealer who leased cars to the union. Coia was
fined $100,000.
A lawyer from Providence, R.I., who has been
fervent political supporter of President Clinton, Coia became
the 350,000-member union's president in 1993 after rising through
its staff ranks.
With its major strength in the Midwest, the
union represents employees in construction, service and public
jobs such as digging tunnels, pouring cement and loading mail.
In the 1980s President Reagan's Commission
on Organized Crime accused the Laborers of having mob ties. To
avoid federal racketeering charges, the union signed the 1995
agreement with the Justice Department to sweep its ranks of corruption.
The union's general counsel, Michael Bearse,
said Vaira's decision "speaks well of our investigatory and
disciplinary process." It was significant that all the allegations
of organized crime involvement were dismissed, Bearse said.
Federal officials, however, said they were
"disappointed with the decision" but did not criticize
the investigation leading up to it.
Scott Lassar, the U.S. attorney for the Northern
District of Illinois, and James K. Robinson, head of the Justice
Department's criminal division, said in a joint statement they
"believe the opinion contains serious factual and legal errors."
The charge against Coia was brought by Robert
Luskin, a former Justice Department organized crime prosecutor
who was hired by the union to head its internal cleanup. Lassar and Robinson said they would discuss
Vaira's opinion with lawyers for the union and encourage Luskin
to appeal it. The internal union appellate officer is W. Neil
Eggleston, a former chief appellate attorney in the U.S. Attorney's
office of the Southern District of New York. Vaira was a former
federal prosecutor in Pennsylvania.
The Justice Department retained the right
under the 1995 agreement to prosecute union officers and seize
control of the union if the government is dissatisfied with the
internalcleanup.
Luskin said he would talk with federal officials
about the case and their request that he appeal. But he said he
doesn't believe the Tuesday decision would jeopardize the union's
arrangement with the federal government to police itself.
"What we promised the government was
not any particular result, but a fair, credible, aggressive and
thorough process," Luskin said. He noted the union has removed
about 200 officials and members during the internal sweep.
Coia released a statement noting that the
union's investigation has spared no one.
"Now my focus is on the future, not
on the past," he said. "I remain totally committed to
our reform ...."
Coia's lawyer, Howard Gutman, said the evidence
was convincing that Coia was not involved with organized crime.
"The evidence demonstrated overwhelmingly
that Coia has never been controlled by the mob, and in fact the
mob despises Arthur," Gutman said.
© Copyright 1999 The Associated
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