Ex-Teamster Chief Told to Begin Term
A federal judge today ordered former Teamsters Union President Roy Williams to begin serving a 10-year prison term for conspiracy to bribe a U.S. senator.
U.S. District Judge Prentice H. Marshall ordered the ailing labor leader to report by 4 p.m. Tuesday to the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo. Williams suffers from emphysema, and his attorneys have said he fears that he will die in prison.
Lawyers for Williams, who did not attend today’s hearing, had requested a reduced sentence or even probation. Lawyer Michael LeVota urged the judge to consider Williams’ recent cooperation with the government in its investigation of organized crime, and said incarceration would send a negative message to other Teamsters who might be contemplating helping the government.
The U.S. Justice Department asked a 60-day reprieve so that authorities could continue questioning Williams about Teamster ties to organized crime.
In denying the motions after a hearing today, Marshall said the offense that Williams was convicted of “is one that cuts at the vitals of a free society, a conspiracy to bribe a member of the U.S. Senate.”
Williams was convicted in December, 1982, of conspiracy to bribe former Sen. Howard Cannon (D-Nev.) and remained free pending appeals and legal maneuvers.
In August, Marshall handed down a final sentence of 10 years and ordered Williams to begin the term Oct. 19. Later that month, the former Teamster chief began cooperating with federal investigators and won another delay of the prison term.
In November, Williams testified at the trial of eight reputed crime syndicate figures in Kansas City, Mo. He identified Sam Ancona, a former Teamster official in Kansas City, as the messenger who delivered to him monthly payoffs of $1,500 from the late reputed syndicate boss, Nicholas Civella.
Williams also reportedly told government investigators that former Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa was killed a decade ago by mobsters and union members when he sought to regain control of the union after a prison term. Hoffa disappeared in Detroit in 1975.