U.S. Dist. Judge Alvin Hellerstein (S.D. NY, Clinton) ruled on Aug. 20 that frmr. N.Y.P.D. chief Robert McGuire will remain in control as trustee of Local 1588 of the Intl. Longshoremen’s Assn. Judge Hellerstein’s ruling delays officer elections that McGuire feared would not ensure the Bayonne, N.J., union’s freedom from mafia influence.
McGuire was appointed trustee of the union in Jan. 2003 by U.S. Dist. Judge John Martin (S.D. NY, G.H.W. Bush), who found that the union hierarchy had violated a 1992 consent decree in which Joseph Lore resigned from the union, and the union’s new president, John Angelone, agreed to root out all mob influence from the Local. Instead, as a fed. jury found in Dec. 2001, Lore continued to run Local 1588 as his financial fiefdom, receiving nearly a million dollars in kickbacks from the union’s officers and employees. Lore was convicted based largely on the testimony of Angelone and ex-1588 official Eugene G’Sell.
McGuire’s trusteeship was scheduled to expire after 18 mos., to be followed by new elections. But he and prosecutors with the U.S. Attny. for N.J. became concerned when they discovered a videotape of a birthday party for reputed Genovese crime family associate Nicholas Furina, who is awaiting trial on charges of extorting kickbacks for job assignments. Also awaiting trial is the last pres. of 1588 before McGuire’s trusteeship, John Timpanaro. The videotape showed many current members of 1588, and most of its frmr. hierarchy, in attendance. Based on that video, fed. prosecutors asked Judge Hellerstein to continue McGuire’s trusteeship for another yr. [The Jersey Journal, 8/20/04, 8/21/04]