Ex-Teamster Leader Carey Acquitted

Ron Carey, the reformist Teamsters president who was ousted from the union in a fund-raising scandal five years ago, was acquitted Friday of lying to investigators during several corruption probes.

A federal jury in Manhattan found Carey, 65, not guilty of seven counts of perjury. Each count carried a maximum five-year sentence.

“I’m just so delighted,” Carey told reporters outside the courtroom. “It obviously opens lots of doors and possibilities, which I’ll be looking at.”

A former truck driver who ran the 1.4-million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters union for five years, Carey narrowly won reelection against James P. Hoffa in 1996. But the vote was invalidated when it was learned that aides laundered nearly $1 million in contributions to Carey’s campaign. Hoffa handily beat Carey in a new election.

Carey, who had pledged to continue efforts to clean up the scandal-plagued union, told investigators at the time that he had no knowledge of the scheme. He said it was orchestrated by professional campaign consultants.

During the trial, Assistant U.S. Atty. Deborah Landis said Carey knew about the plan, did nothing to stop it and then lied about it to numerous federal and union investigators over a six-month period.

The aides contributed $885,000 in Teamsters funds to several political action organizations. In turn, wealthy donors contributed similar amounts to Carey’s campaign. Federal law prohibits the use of union funds to promote the candidacy of any individual.

The union, which was placed under federal trusteeship long before the Carey presidency, still is monitored by the government.

Matt Noyes of the Assn. for Union Democracy, a New York-based civil rights group that has monitored the Teamsters and other corruption-plagued unions, said he was not surprised by the acquittal. The prosecution “seemed a little gratuitous,” he said, because Carey already had been removed from the union and the architects of the scheme had been found guilty and were sentenced.

Teamsters spokesman Bret Caldwell said the acquittal would not change the union’s position toward Carey. “He’s banned from the union and that’s not changing.”

Caldwell also said the union planned to continue pursuing a civil racketeering case against Carey. That effort seeks the return of the $885,000. The case was dismissed by a federal judge two weeks ago, but Caldwell said the union plans to appeal the dismissal as well as file a new, rewritten case. “Ron Carey’s not off the hook yet,” he said.

Friday’s acquittal came as Teamsters members began receiving mail-in ballots for the latest union election. Hoffa is running for reelection against Tom Leedham, who ran as a reformer in Carey’s place during the rematch five years ago. Members have until mid-November to return ballots.

Leedham supporters said the acquittal could help their campaign, because Leedham and Carey espouse similar reforms and pull from the same supporters. “It really undercuts a lot of what Hoffa has said” about Carey, said Ken Paff, national coordinator of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union. “Whatever mistakes Carey made--including allowing unsavory consultants into his campaign--his legacy is one of reform, power and hope for Teamsters.”

But Hoffa campaign spokesman Rich Leebove disputed that. “We don’t think it will have any impact, because Ron Carey’s not on the ballot,” he said. “This is an issue from five years ago, and most people have moved on. This election’s going to be decided on leadership. . . . We feel comfortable. Leedham’s support is less now than it was three years ago.”