Local Police Reports

Retired Head of Operating Engineers Local 150 Charged with Illegally Obtaining Feeders for His Maryland Buffalo Farm


Chicago, IL–(ENEWSPF)–The retired leader of a regional labor union local was charged with violating federal labor law by allegedly demanding and accepting livestock feeders from a company that employed the union local’s workers for his buffalo farm in Maryland. The defendant, William E. Dugan, was charged in a single-count criminal information filed in U.S. District Court, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; James Vanderberg, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General in Chicago; and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Dugan, 76, of Hancock, Md., and formerly of Mt. Prospect, was president and business manager of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, headquartered in Countryside. The 23,000-member local represents workers in construction and a variety of other industries in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa.

Dugan will be ordered to appear for arraignment on the misdemeanor charge, which is violation of the U.S. Labor-Management Relations Act, at a later date in U.S. District Court.

According to the charges, in April 2005, Dugan demanded and accepted concrete buffalo feeders valued at more than $900 from Company A, whose workers were represented by Local 150.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick King. Other Labor Department branches that participated in the investigation are the Employee Benefits Security Administration and the Office of Labor Management Standards.

The labor law violation carries a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. If convicted, the Court would determine a reasonable sentence to be imposed under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The public is reminded that an information contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Source: CHICAGO.FBI.GOV


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