Ex-Teamsters Chief Williams Gets Parole : Will Be Released on Condition He Continue to Aid Investigators

Ailing former Teamsters President Roy L. Williams, serving a prison term since December, 1985, for conspiracy to commit bribery, will be paroled Tuesday on the condition that he continue to cooperate with authorities in criminal investigations, the Justice Department announced on Friday.

Williams has been confined to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo., with emphysema and heart trouble while serving his indeterminate sentence, which had a maximum of 10 years.

Under an indeterminate sentence, the time of release from prison is left to the discretion of the U.S. Parole Commission.

The announcement of his release followed a hearing Tuesday in Springfield before two examiners of the parole commission.

Since the hearing, members of the commission in Washington and elsewhere have been voting on whether to release the former Teamsters boss, commission Chairman Benjamin Baer said.

“The decision is based on his past cooperation with law enforcement authorities, which was at great risk to his personal safety, and in recognition of his anticipated future cooperation,” Baer said.

“This release is contingent upon his continued cooperation with law enforcement authorities,” and failure to cooperate “could result in his return to prison.”

Williams may figure prominently in the Justice Department’s unprecedented racketeering case, filed in New York on June 28, seeking to take over the entire union. The government contends that the Teamsters Union is controlled by organized crime.

Bribery Conviction

Williams was convicted of conspiring in 1979 to bribe then-Sen. Howard M. Cannon (D-Nev.). In the 1982 case in Chicago, the former union leader and four other men were charged with offering Cannon exclusive rights to buy a choice piece of Teamster-owned property in Las Vegas at a bargain price.

In return, according to testimony, the senator was to help in defeating legislation to deregulate the trucking industry. Cannon was never charged and the legislation became law.

In a last-ditch effort late in 1985 to get his sentence reduced, Williams testified in federal court that Nick Civella, the reputed Mafia boss of Kansas City until his death several years ago, paid Williams $1,500 a month from late 1974 until mid-1981. In exchange, Williams testified, he gave his vote on some Las Vegas-related loans from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund.

In addition to his prison term, Williams was fined $25,000.

Williams was president of the Teamsters Union from 1981 until April, 1983, when he was forced to resign in order to stay out of prison while appealing his conviction. He began serving his sentence on Dec. 3, 1985.

After he went to prison, Williams testified in federal court that he had been controlled by the mob. Williams also testified that his successor as president of the Teamsters--Jackie Presser--was even more indebted to organized crime for his elevation to the top post in America’s biggest labor union.