Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more bizarre:
In Houston, Byron takes full responsibility and says he wasn’t a victim but . . . points the finger at FELA and . . . suggests the problem with corruption in the UTU starts at the BOTTOM!!! That’s right, at the local level where the corrupt FELA attorneys buy our votes and influence our union’s policies with free beer and pens.
It’s hard to run a labor organization like a corporation when the power base at the bottom of the pyramid has been bought and paid for by the DLCs. When Da Judge asks him, “So, you’re saying the DLCs control the 1oca1 union officials?”, Byron responds enthusiastically, “Absolutely, absolutely.” He then suggests that the authorities have to root deeply into the union in their ongoing investigation to get to the source of all this corruption and he commits himself to a life of service and cooperation with such an investigation.
I guess we all got it wrong. All you grunts out there prepare for a visit from an US Attorney coming to depose you. If you’ve ever accepted a free pen from a DLC be prepared to explain just what you gave him in return. And you thought the lawyers came to the meetings to spy and report back to Cleveland.
I guess this also means any possible high level co-conspirators in the criminal enterprise are off the hook as the feds go after source of the corruption; DLC, local officers and FELA.
Does any of this disturb you?
If so, consider joining UTU’s Members Against Corruption Caucus (MAC) by visiting
www.reformit2004.org
getting informed, and signing up with the only organized group of UTU members working to uncover the real story of past and possible ongoing corruption.
Also, please consider signing the online petition to get the Boyd/Little/Rookard/Dennis court records unsealed which can be found at
www.PetitionOnline.com/syzygy/
UTU posts sentencing transcripts of Boyd/Little/Rookard/Dennis at
www.utu.org/worksite/detail_news.cfm?ArticleID=15546
From Boyd Sentencing
THE DEFENDANT: Thank you, Your Honor. The first thing I need to say, and I want to say publicly, is I accept full responsibility for my actions. The shame and responsibility falls squarely on my shoulders, no one else.
The other thing about the tragedy of this whole event that I think is not so obvious to the word is the personal and private tragedy that I’ve caused a number of people, my fami1y and my close friends. We all know what the pub1ic outcome of it is.
Publicly I would like to apologize to my wife and my son and daughter, grandson and some very dear friends and members of the organization and other friends throughout the country who expressed their support. In trying to think of the words to use to ask for forgiveness or the apology, there’s only two words that come to mind and those are to them I say thank you for the love, kindness and support and I’m truly sorry and ashamed for my actions. And I have been overwhelmed by that support and particularly overwhelmed by the folks that I’ve sat across the table from and argued against my whole career and I’m truly amazed. I’m not entitled to it, but I’m gratified by it.
The other concern that I have is—and I wasn’t a victim. I was a participant in a perverse corruption and—
THE COURT: Let me ask you, what can be done to correct this scheme? The DLC program provides an inherent incentive for lawyers to be referred these very lucrative cases. How can this system be corrected to destroy or reduce that incentive?
THE DEFENDANT: My belief, Your Honor, is this, that—I think maybe to define one thing first and then I’ll answer your question, because I think the two go together. The system has gone on for generations. The system goes on as we stand here—or I stand here today. The system will go on tomorrow.
What needs to be done, in my opinion, is to look at the very genesis of the system. It just isn’t at the top level of the organization, but at the bottom level of the organization. I know from dealing with the politics and the inside of the organization that there’s a huge amount of control that’s generated by these DLCS, and you have to be able to counter that. And the way you have to counter that, I think, is with the abi1ity for government to get in and have the knowledge and understanding and to follow the trails that need to be followed and where they go to get to the core base, the political base of these DLCs within the organization. And I would say this, I don t think this corruption is limited to UTU. I have a firm belief it goes way beyond that, into all rail labor. And the genesis of it is at the very lowest level. And trying to control the internal politics of the organization becomes extremely difficult when you have all these forces coming from below up. They’re the ones that control the votes. They’re the ones that control a lot of the policies of the organization.
THE COURT: So, you’re saying the DLCs control the 1oca1 union officials?
THE DEFENDANT: Absolutely, absolutely. They’re more pervasive there and more powerful there than they ever were at the international level, because they control the absolute base of the organization. And you can believe their support is either generated because the individual members think they’re wonderful lawyers or do a good job or for other reasons. And to some they’re very good lawyers and do a very good job.
There are many other reasons that they get their support. And I think the government needs to look into that. And one of the things that I was going to say, and it also answers your question, is I’ve committed to the government and Mr. Gallagher to do whatever I can, now and in the future, to help clean up that corruption and try to get that control away.
THE COURT: Yeah, I think this -- it's become apparent to me reading the information in this case that this situation is longstanding and systemic, and I’m not sure case-by-case
crimina1 prosecutions are the most effective way to root out the inherent incentive that exists under this regime. Has the government thought about some legislative solution?
MR. GALLAGHER: The government has, in fact, Your Honor, and we’re hopeful that we can address that issue, but Mr. Sussman and his folks would probably have a greater influence than the U. S. Attorney’s office in trying to get audiences with those folks. In fact, one DLC, an honest DLC, is the son of a U.S. Senator. So, certainly there are ways to provide influence to change this system , but as Mr. Boyd mentioned, it goes back - - it actua11y goes back to the turn of the Nineteenth Century when the FELA came into existence in 1906, which created this limitless amount of money that could be awarded to damages. So, it ' s very lucrative for lawyers to get that FELA work and in competition, there are so many lawyers that want it, they are wiling to pad the pockets of union officers or help their campaigns in order to get or retain that designation.
10:11:49 AM 
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