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Dougherty Involved in Physical Altercation

John-DoughertyThe most influential labor leader in Philadelphia, and perhaps the entire commonwealth of Pennsylvania, was involved in some sort of physical altercation last month.

According to Craig R. McCoy, Mark Fazlollah, Dylan Purcell and Chris Brennan of the Inquirer, IBEW 98 Business Manager John Dougherty got into a fight with a nonunion contractor Joshua Keesee on January 21st.

Keesee stated that he incident began when Dougherty noticed a union decal on his car. The two got into an argument when Dougherty struck him and Keesee threw a punch but hit one of Dougherty’s companions again.

Dougherty’s spokesman said that Keesee threatened his client’s family and that there was a “brief physical altercation” but that Johnny Doc “was not the aggressor”.

A witness stated that he saw Dougherty and his three companions pursue Keesee and surveillance video appears to substantiate this.

Furthermore, Keesee’s lawyer asserted that Philadelphia DA Seth Williams deliberately passed off the case to Attorney General Kathleen Kane in order to avoid dealing with Dougherty.

Dougherty is a controversial and powerful union head in the Keystone State. For example, just last year his brother Kevin was elected to the State Supreme Court.

UPDATE: The AG’s office released the following statement today:

“In the matter of John Dougherty, Attorney General Kane has set up a conflict wall regarding the decision to accept or deny the referral and/or initiate charges. This action was taken to avoid the appearance of a conflict due to the high profile nature of Mr. Dougherty, who was a donor to Attorney General Kane in 2013.”

“The Office of Attorney General employs capable attorneys who are prepared to make the decision whether to accept and/or prosecute a potential assault case.”

UPDATE 2: Dougherty responded to the Inquirer article in an interview with Philly Voice.

70 Responses

  1. There is only one HaHaHa!!!

    And I told you can re-apply next year for President of the HaHaHa Fan Club !!!!!!

  2. There was an old man from Belgrave
    Who found a dead whore in a cave
    He said “How disgusting,
    But it only needs dusting,
    And think of the money I’ll save.”

  3. Good citizens of PA. I told you so!! Perhaps this can alleviate any confusion.
    If the aggravated assault takes place in south philadelphia that would be the 3rd or 17 police district. Why then is the police incident report missing. Why is it in NE philly detectives right next to John McRizzos Fop. ? Why is it redacted at courthouse. Why hasn’t he been fingerprinted? It’s been a month. I’ll tell you why. Cover up. Corruption. Johnny Doc has no business being there but for to Stalk and Harrass or ” straighten out” the victim. Dougherty goes with the premise he’s UNTOUCHABLE. He is!!! Otherwise he’d already be arrested and it would be in the paper a month ago. In this specific instance when McNesby could not get Seth to play ball or blow the case out. Williams sent it to the AG. Then in retaliation McNesby comes out criticizing Seth for taking to long to get Shady. Because that’s what Dougherty toldddd his puppet McNesby to do. Regarding Shady McNesby said in a radio interview and compared the case to OJ Simpson. Seth knew the cops are gonna shake Shady down which was why he wanted to wait. I’m no Seth Williams fan anymore so don’t get me wrong. But the shady McCoy video shows shady trying to intervene when 4 white guys try to jump his security. Don’t forget they didn’t identify themselves as police into later. That Recess club is a known racist nightclub. By giving it to the AG the FEDS will have no choice but to take the case. Thank God. But someone has to ask the question publicly WHERE IS THE POLICE REPORT WHY DOES NE DETECTIVES HAVE IT. WE WANT AN FBI INVESTIGATION of the Aggravated Assault and The police cover up!!!!!! Or he’s gonna walk yet again.
    Don’t forget it all comes back around Kane refused to file charges against Dougherty when this happened :
    http://mobile.philly.com/news/?wss=/philly/news&id=320779851&
    Look at the dates.

  4. I remember when Seth Williams tried to blame Kathleen Kane for his use of campaign funds on The Sporting Club dues. Now he is “referring” her a high-profile prosecution of a union leader??? Strange. Very strange.

  5. I think we are getting away from the point here: A violent crime was committed in Philadelphia. 4 thugs attacked one man and beat him up. But – because one of the thugs gave Williams $$$, Williams is looking the other way. There is no real conflict. It is just a pathetic excuse. Williams has some explaining to do. The questions are piling up.

  6. the d.a hopes everybody will focus on the shady case and not this. it ain’t workin; and he’s dropping the ball on both

  7. Lou911: Do you confuse “victims” with the cops who started the fight with McCoy’s posse? Are you a cop?

  8. jmarskak (troll??): Is your criticism of Dems bending over backward for unions based on the preference for GOP bending over frontward for everybody who hands them cash and/or favors?

  9. Reports are that Seth Williams was going to meet with L. McCoy today (until McCoy canceled over the fact that Williams leaked it).

    Serious question — has Williams even met with the victims?

  10. gulag – there was a time when he thought that taking down Kane would clear the path for him to be AG. Then the Feds announced their criminal investigation into Williams. Who knows what he is thinking now. But he is toast in Philly – whether he lets Johnny Doc and his union thugs assault people or not.

  11. Does Seth Williams think he can still get elected in Philly no matter how many favors he does party machine?

  12. Where is “Observer”? And the guy with “98CessPool” in his screen name. One of them was saying that Dougherty and McCaffery were involved with framing Kane so that she could be indicted (and then suspended and then removed).

    The theory was that Dougherty signed up to help because his brother (and other close to him) was implicated in the Porn-gate scandal that Kane was exposing.

    He suggested that the reporter who printed the “leaked” story hung out at Dougherty’s bar and got “taken care of” there. His theory was that they knew Kane had discussed doing it internally with their buddies on the inside. They knew they had the e-mails. So they leaked the stuff to the reporter to make it look like Kane did it.

    I HAVE NO IDEA if any of that is true, BTW. But it does dove-tail with this story. It would explain why Seth (sworn enemy of Kane’s) is now protecting Dougherty.

    I will say that, if that is Kane’s defense, she too has a conflict and cannot prosecute Dougherty. Guess he is free to do whatever he wants in Philly. No one left to prosecute him!! lmao

  13. Fina must have made a bunch of you convicted criminals MAD. HE still isn’t sorry for putting HAHAHA and his PALS in prison. Definitely not sorry for having your HINEY HOLES shown love from BUBBA.

  14. Well – it seems quite natural to mention Fina and Williams in the same sentence. After all – they are in bed together – joined at the hip. Bob Levant, Fina’s lawyer, and Kathy Martin, Levan’t’s wife and Williams’ new “Chief of Staff” are also in that disgusting bed.

    And the problems Williams is now having did not occur before Williams got into bed with Fina and hired the in-over-her-head Kathy Martin to run the show.

    Not only that – the 1st Assistant Seth Williams recently ran out of the Office (Edward McCann namely) was one of the only people who got in the way of the filthy way Williams tried to go about being the D.A.

    Now that McCann is gone, there is no one to force Williams to be sensible. Kathy Martin has no idea what she is doing. Fina is a racist creep. Williams has surrounded himself with sycophants. So – it’s pretty predictable that we may want to talk about one of them – especially if he is the one who is in the paper every day with scandal after scandal or with another money driven lawsuit he is filing.

  15. Up to 16 on this page so far. Man, someone hates him. Watch out Seth, hatred this deep could be unpredictable if this person goes off any more of their meds.

  16. But LeSean McCoy is Black. Williams is letting him skate too. Williams says he is still “investigating.” Remember how long it took him to peruse Fina’s e-mails? This one could take FOREVER.

    These delays only help the criminals. Williams is not trying to “get it right.” That’s just one of his sound bytes. He couldn’t care less about what is “right.” In fact – he probably wouldn’t know right if it was tattoo’d on the ass of one of the girls he was fucking and, at the same time, hiring at the DA’s Office.

  17. Agree with Aaron.

    Protecting white guys seems to be the theme. First, he protects Fina and Costanzo. See their e-mails here:http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/08/26/kathleen-kane-frank-fina-porngate-emails/

    Then, in the Salvation Army case, he lets Fina give immunity to the white guys and go after the Black guys.

    Now – he is refusing to do his job on an aggravated assault case where a man was attacked by 4 union thugs – including one white guy that gave him Seth of money.

    This does not pass the proverbial smell test.

  18. What the hell is going on at the DA’s Office? Does Williams have that place for sale? If they were being this “careful” on all cases – where the little guy is the accused – I’d be OK with what is happening on the Dougherty and McCoy cases. But it seems like there are two sets of rules – one for rich guys and another for the rest of us.

  19. Seems like it is time for Seth Williams to hold a press conference and answer the MANY questions about his handling of these two high profile cases and the new “Chief of Staff” at his Office.

    Ha3’s questions below would be a good place to start. With regard to the McCoy case, Williams should also be asked about his relationships with the Eagles. He is often on the sidelines for Eagles games. Who is his connection? Does his Eagles connection have any relationship with McCoy? Has he disclosed this to anyone?

  20. Hold on a minute!! BREAKING news:

    LeSean McCoy’s camp has canceled his meeting with Seth Williams. He is extremely upset that someone at the DA’s Office leaked the fact that they were going to meet.

    Guess Seth Williams will have to think of another way to get on SportsCenter. Too late for him to be an actual athlete (despite the gym memberships and weight loss).

    Maybe he can “adopt” Fina’s Penn State 3 case the way he adopted Fina’s sting case. Perhaps the fact that the Superior Court already threw out most of Fina’ charges won’t matter to Williams. After all – it didn’t matter to Williams that Fina is a racist. It doesn’t matter to Seth that the 1st Assistant at the OAG took issue with Fina’s targeting of only Blacks.

    Williams can’t seem to do anything right. He is a clown. A political hack.

  21. And now that coward is meeting with Shady McCoy. Maybe he is trying to change the subject.

    But the last time he met with a suspect – he, literally, begged the suspect to take his ridiculously generous plea deal to avoid getting embarrassed in Court.

    Wonder what the McCoy meeting could be about. Did Seth meet with John Dougherty too? This is strange stuff. It is starting to make sense that Williams hired the racist prosecutor that the Superior Court just called “highly improper.” Williams himself seems to be up to some HIGHLY IMPROPER stuff.

  22. Why are you Dems surprised? Doc is a big union guy. Williams is a Dem. Dems always bend over backwards for big union guys.

  23. Rollo – if Kane is smart (highly questionable), she PUBLICLY sends it right back to Seth Williams’ pathetic Office.

    The conflict is a joke. There’s no legitimate reason this case cannot be prosecuted by the Philadelphia DA’s Office. None whatsoever.

    I hope the people who are thinking of running against Williams are paying attention. He has always been a politician posing as a prosecutor. The Feds are investigating him criminally for mis-using his campaign funds. And now he is REFUSING TO DO HIS JOB.

    His excuse for wimping out is a crock of shit. It’s starting to stink up the place …

  24. Smart move by Williams. The pass to Kane becomes a long bomb once the defender lawyers stretch the clock into next year when the Zappala mafia replaces the current referee. Take Johnny Doc and give the points. Even with numerous penalties for delay of game, the fix is in and the bookies win again.

  25. Someone needs to start looking into Williams.

    This story makes him look like a complete political hack. You can’t let Dougherty skate because of a phantom (nonexistent) conflict.

    No charges for McCoy is suspicious too. Seth Williams is on the field for Eagles games. Who gets him there? Does that person have any connection to Shady McCoy?

    I smell a scandal.

  26. it is appalling that DA Williams tried to sweep this under the rug. We elect a DA to go after thugs like this. Not back down from them and make excuses. Sorry. This does not pass the smell test. I don’t see a real “conflict.”

  27. I hate Frank Fina so much that I wish Sandusky and him would switch places. Anyone who doesn’t feel the same will feel my wrath.

  28. No – it’s about Seth Williams and his failure to arrest a political ally. This puts on display everything wrong with politicians as prosecutors. Dougherty should be in jail right now. But, because of the DA, he is not. That’s not the way it is supposed to work. In fact – IT DOESN’T WORK when corrupt jokers like Williams protect their buddies at all cost.

  29. Will Seth Williams finally answer questions from the Press? He has been in hiding for months. Other than sit-downs with his buddies, he won’t answer questions. His spokesperson should be part-time with all the “no comments” he throws out there.

    Here are some questions for Seth Williams when he has that press conference:

    – did your new “Chief of Staff” and “General Counsel” get interviewed by the Hiring Committee? Was she vetted by HR? Is it just a coincidence she is Fran Fina’s lawyer’s wife? Couldn’t you find someone who actually had general counsel experience? Someone who had been a prosecutor for more than a cup of coffee?

    – do you think it’s a conflict that you have Bob Levant’s wife talking about AG Kane when Bob Levant is suing AG Kane for $$$ with Frank Fina? You getting a cut of that, BTW??

    – have you fired Fina yet?

    – is it true your most recent 1st Assistant left because you refused to fire Frank Fina?

    – why do you think it is OK to spend campaign $$$ on gym memberships?

    – before this Johnny Doc fiasco, when is the last time you “referred” a case to the OAG because of a “conflict”?

    – what other cases, under your administration, have you referred out due to “conflict”? What were the reasons?

    – isn’t it try that, historically, you have referred out “conflicts” only when an ADA – or an ADA’s family member – is the accused?

    – please provide one example – other than the Johnny Doc case – of an assault case you have referred out because the perpetrator is rich and has given you money?

    – do you think it is fait that your office refuses to prosecute rich people who give you money for your gym memberships?

    This is an outright embarrassment to the City of Philadelphia.

  30. The article mentions his brother in the last line. But you are correct otherwise.

    Williams needs to be called out on this. It is an embarrassment to the good people of that DA’s Office that Williams would be able to do something like this. A man was attacked. It is caught on video. Dougherty and his buddies chased the man down and broke his nose. A mob attacked a man and Seth Williams doesn’t have Dougherty in hand-cuffs???

    Kane’s office should send it right back. If Williams can’t prosecute violent criminals, then he should resign so we can have a DA that will.

    “New day – New DA” hasn’t worked out too well for the citizens of Philadelphia. Their taxpayer dollars are still going to pay the man that sent this e-mail to his white-male buddies:

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/zadock1/3580634808

  31. No mention of his brother, an effing Justice of the PA Supreme Court. What an embarrassment this state is

  32. I guess Dougherty can buy his way out of criminal prosecutions. If Williams has to look the other way because he took money from Dougherty, then Kane will have to punt too. Because she too took money from Dougherty. And then there will be no one left to prosecute Dougherty. How convenient.

  33. Seth Williams will soon be joining Ms. Kane in the unemployment line. The good citizens of Philadelphia will no stand for this. Nor should they. On his way out, we will be sure to thank him for his help on Kane. Without his help, we would never have been able to take down Kane. Thank you, Mr. Williams!

  34. This is not good for Seth Williams. He goes after Black politicians with his racist Assistant DA. But he ducks the Dougherty case!?! He is going down in the next election – if not before then.

  35. Ha3 — This is just more proof that Williams has gotten into bed with the wrong people. His career is unraveling. And it all started when he hired those racist, corrupt, woman-hating pigs who had just fled the AG’s Office.

    The irony is that he hired them to tackle “public corruption.” If you can’t prosecute people like John Dougherty – or others that gave you $$$ – who can you prosecute? Why bother having “public corruption” prosecutors? Maybe to go after the people who DID NOT give you $$$?

    That Office is a mess. Lynne Abraham was right about Williams. He needs to go.

  36. This is similar to what happened on the Sandusky case. The prosecutors ignore it and hope it just goes away. They only address it when it is in the Press. Williams has no legitimate grounds to refer this case. And he doesn’t say anything until the victim gets a lawyer and starts making a stink. It’s a straight aggravated assault case. Dougherty and his three thugs attacked the victim. They should be in hand-cuffs by now. Instead, he is using his power and influence to try to get away with it. And so far, thanks to Seth Williams, it is working.These cases do not get better with age.

    Seth Williams: You should be ashamed of yourself. DO. YOUR. JOB.

  37. Oh Nick … It wasn’t a “fight.” It was an attack. A four-on-one attack where Dougherty and 3 goons beat up the victim.

    Are you going to ask Williams the tough questions now? For instance:

    When was the last case that was sent to AG’s Office due to a “conflict”? If it was over a year ago – why start again now?

    What types of cases, historically, have been referred out to Ag due to “conflict”? Has a case like this EVER been referred out due to “conflict”?

    What are you afraid of?

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