Letters To The Editor

February 13, 2000

RE: Letter [02/11/00] from Michael Bearse, General Counsel for Laborers' International Union of North America

To Whom It May Concern:

In coming to Arthur A. Coia's defense, LIUNA General Counsel Michael Bearse is attempting to hide the criminal enterprise operating within LIUNA, just as he did when he appeared, before a U.S. House subcommittee, with me & in counterpoint to my sworn testimony regarding union corruption.

[Impediments To Union Democracy, U.S. House Subcommittee On Education & The Workforce, May 4, 1998].

Bearse's letter, like his sworn testimony, is specious down to the last "and & the".

Bearse also has the distinction of being a defendant in a Civil RICO suit 397 CV 02502 JCH] in Bridgeport Connecticut in which LIIUNA "General President Emeritus" Arthur A. Coia is also mentioned as a "wrongdoer".

This December, 1997 Connecticut suit, anchored in the Racketeer Influence & Corrupt Organizations Act, [RICO], has gone through 141 dockets & 14 affidavits where the defendants have filed multiple protective orders & multiple motions to quash.

Coia, using the "successful internal reform program", & with the blessing of the U.S. Justice Department [DOJ], has selectively purged his enemies &, at the same time, through his group, has extorted union democracy in the District & Commonwealth of Connecticut.

Specifically, Coia associates-in-fact have been charged with direct predicate acts of RICO including mail fraud, wire fraud, extortion, a 29 USC 530 assault, & witness- tampering in the form of multiple schemes & overt acts, all facilitated by LIUNA in-house-prosecutor Robert Luskin & through the purview of the LIUNA/DOJ "Operational Agreement".

I am a victim of the same actions as enumerated in the DOJ 1994 RICO complaint against Coia, which said he used "force, violence & fear of physical & economic injury to create a climate of intimidation & fear".

In Reply To Bearse:

Coia has "42 years of service" to the union, making him 14 years of age when he started as a construction laborer.

Coia exited, unscathed, by pleading out to a deal, courtesy of his handpicked in-house-prosecutor Robert Luskin [also a RICO defendant] & U.S. prosecutors.

Coia paid back $100,000 stolen from the taxpayers plus a $10,000 "fine".

Coia's 1998 salary of $335,674 was augmented by an "allowance" of $86,120.

Coia is being paid $335,000+ in retirement , courtesy of his handpicked Executive Board.

Bearse's hollow charge of "anti-union propaganda", gives hypocrisy a bad name.

Sincerely,

Stephen Manos

RICO Plaintiff & Vice-President, [Forcibly Retired]

Laborers' Local 230, Hartford, CT