Jury gets racketeering case of union boss Joseph Dougherty

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A longtime union boss is receiving medical attention as a jury starts to weigh his fate in a racketeering case in Philadelphia.

Former ironworkers business manager Joseph Dougherty has been taken to a hospital with apparent breathing problems.

The jury Tuesday afternoon has just begun deliberating after closing arguments in the union intimidation case.

The 73-year-old Dougherty has been on trial for more than a week and elected not to testify.

Nearly a dozen co-defendants who worked under Dougherty have pleaded guilty in the case, leaving him the lone person on trial.

The co-defendants admit they vandalized or set fire to nonunion jobsites and tried to intimidate contractors to keep their members employed.

Dougherty could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted of federal racketeering, extortion and other counts.