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Get you up to speed: John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty’s prison sentence commuted by President Trump, lawyer says
Former Philadelphia labor leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty was granted an early release from prison following a commutation signed by President Trump, confirmed by his attorney George Bochetto. Dougherty was sentenced to six years for bribery and embezzlement and is expected to be released from a federal penitentiary in Lewisburg.
John Dougherty’s legal team expects him to be released from a federal penitentiary in Lewisburg on Friday morning. Records from the Office of the Pardon Attorney still do not show an official approval for the commutation despite the confirmation from his attorney.
John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty’s early release from prison was confirmed by his attorney, George Bochetto, who stated that President Trump signed a commutation due to Dougherty’s need to care for his ailing wife. Dougherty’s release is slated for Friday morning, despite opposition from prosecutors who argued he had not served enough of his sentence.
What remains unclear — Records from the Office of the Pardon Attorney do not yet confirm the approval of Dougherty’s commutation despite his attorney’s statement.
President Trump commutes prison sentence of John Dougherty, lawyer confirms
Former Philadelphia labor leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty was granted an early release from prison after President Trump agreed to sign a commutation to end his six-year sentence early, his attorney George Bochetto confirmed to WTX US News Philadelphia Thursday.
Dougherty was convicted in 2023 of bribing a city councilmember and embezzling about $600,000 from Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He was also found guilty in November 2021 in his first trial on counts of bribery and fraud in connection with using former Councilmember Bobby Henon to advance work and projects for IBEW Local 98.
Dougherty was sentenced to six years in prison in July 2024 and has four years left in his sentence.
As of Thursday night, records on the Office of the Pardon Attorney website do not yet show a commutation approval. The agency’s website shows Mr. Trump denied a commutation of sentence for Dougherty in July.
“President Trump has signed a commutation so that Johnny Doc can be released from prison to take care of his gravely ill wife, Cecilia Dougherty,” Bochetto said. “Cecilia Dougherty is in desperate need of care. Her money has run out for private nursing, and she desperately needs John by her side. And that’s why now.”
Bochetto said they hope Dougherty will be released from a federal penitentiary in Lewisburg Friday morning.
“We’re going to have a crew there to receive John and bring him to his wife,” Bochetto said.
Bochetto added he received a phone call Thursday afternoon from the White House informing him of the commutation.
Dougherty served as the head of IBEW Local 98 for nearly 30 years and was a longtime Democratic power broker in Pennsylvania politics.
“We are all just so grateful to President Trump, who really has risen above politics. John Dougherty is an icon of Democratic politics in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. Donald Trump is a Republican,” Bochetto said. “The president has risen above partisan politics and recognized the need and the compassion that this case presented and commuted John’s sentence so he can return home and take care of his wife.”
Prosecutors had opposed Dougherty’s request, saying they did not believe he had served enough of his sentence to merit release.
WTX US News Philadelphia reached out to the White House for confirmation and is waiting to hear back.
October 12, 2024
6:18 am
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
To downplay the genocide, the israelis claim there’s only 20,000 people left in north Gaza, says
@MahaGaza
: the real number exceeds 400,000
Man of the right wing Nigel Farage taking more second jobs and freebie helicopter rides
Gosh he’ll soon be a true blue Tory at this rate
Or far far worse
The cost-of-living crisis is far from over, yet the government’s 50% increase to the bus fare cap is a political choice, adding hundreds to annual costs.
To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all.
G20 waters down support for Ukraine amid pressure for peace talks
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November 23, 2024
8:25 am
Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
November 23, 2024
8:25 am
November 23, 2024
8:17 am
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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