Labor Voice, September 24, 1999
Hartford Laborers
Name Two New Defendants in RICO Case
Two new defendants
have been added to a civil RICO
[Racketeer Influence
& Corrupt Organizations] lawsuit in Bridgeport,
Ct.
The new defendants
are Michael Bearse, [General Counsel for
The Laborers’ International of North America,
LIUNA] & Frank Freeman, [Vice-President
of Hartford Laborers’ Local 230].
Bearse [ who at one
time was Arthur Coia Sr.’s personal lawyer]
now works at LIUNA Headquarters in Washington,
DC where he directly serves Arthur Coia Jr.
LIUNA Headquarters
is alternately referred to as either “The Crystal
Palace” or “The Vatican”.
Freeman was the union
Sergeant-at-arms who, under the direction of union
Business Manager Charles LeConche, physically
assaulted then-union-officer Stephen Manos during
an union executive board meeting held on July 30,
1997 at Capriccio Restaurant in Hartford, Ct.
LeConche subsequently
sued Manos after Manos turned over an audio tape of
the assault
& other evidence to
the FBI & other law enforcement agencies.
LeConche added other
charges to the lawsuit after Manos testified on labor
racketeering to
a U.S. Congressional
subcommittee on May 4, 1998.
On June 30, 1999,
LeConche was forced to withdraw the lawsuit after
Manos issued subpoenas for testimony [for July 2,
1999] to LeConche & union officer Butch Granell.
Manos, along with Gary
Wall & William Cooksey Sr., is a plaintiff in the RICO
suit
which names LeConche
as a defendant.
Other Defendants are
:
Robert Luskin
[LIUNA General Executive Board Attorney],
Vere Haynes
[LIUNA 2nd Vice-President],
Dominick Lopreato
[Former Union Business Manager],
John Pezzenti [Union
Secretary/Treasurer],
Robert Cheverie
[Union Lawyer ( Cheverie & Associates)],
Harriet Roman
[Union Dispatcher], Local 230, LIUNA,
&
The Luskin/Coia/Lopreato
Group [a.k.a. LCL][a.k.a. The Enterprise] 18 U.S.C.
1961 (4)
Manos: “We’ll
see how Freeman & LeConche act after they take the
witness stand.
Hoodlum tactics
can’t be tolerated in any democratic union.”