Ron Carey, elected president of the Teamsters union in 1991 as an anticorruption crusader, went on trial yesterday on federal charges that he lied repeatedly to investigators looking into fund-raising improprieties in his re-election campaign five years later.
Mr. Carey is charged with lying dozens of times when he denied having known of a scheme in which the union contributed $885,000 to a variety of liberal organizations, and in exchange other donors to those groups gave to his campaign.
Mr. Carey looked on silently during jury selection in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday, wearing a navy blue suit and sitting stone-faced much of the day, his hair far whiter than when he led the 1.4-million- member union. Many prospective jurors sought to be excused after Judge Robert L. Carter told them the trial would last some three weeks. But a jury had been chosen by day's end, and opening statements are scheduled for today.
Mr. Carey has been indicted on seven counts, and conviction could mean a sentence of up to 35 years in prison. His lawyer, Reid Weingarten, who in the past has repeatedly maintained Mr. Carey's innocence, would say yesterday only that "we're satisfied with the jury, and we're looking forward to the trial."
Bret Caldwell, a spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, now headed by Mr. Carey's longtime rival James P. Hoffa, said: "We are pleased that the trial is beginning. It has taken far too long for us to get to this point. We are hoping that justice is served for Carey's bilking the union out of nearly $1 million."
If Mr. Carey is to prevail at trial, it appears he will have to convince the jury that he was entirely ignorant of crucial decisions in his 1996 campaign and in his union's involvement in the national election that year. Three Carey campaign aides, the union's former political director, a fund-raiser and a campaign lawyer have already been convicted in the case, in which aides helped arrange for the union to donate $885,000 to several liberal get-out-the-vote efforts, including Citizen Action and Project Vote. In return, a number of wealthy donors to those groups contributed more than $100,000 to Mr. Carey's financially ailing campaign.
Mr. Carey narrowly beat Mr. Hoffa in the 1996 election. But federal officials who oversee the Teamsters voided his victory, having determined fraud, and ousted him from the union in 1998 for failing to stop the scheme. The indictment accuses Mr. Carey of lying repeatedly when he told a grand jury and the overseers that he had known nothing about it.
The trial comes at an awkward time for the Teamsters' self-described reform movement, once headed by Mr. Carey, because it coincides with an intense election campaign in which Tom Leedham, an Oregon leader and former Carey lieutenant, is challenging Mr. Hoffa, who won the presidency in a rerun election in 1998 after the Carey victory had been overturned.
In the wake of the fund-raising scandal, the Carey wing of the Teamsters has split into several parts. Many Carey supporters are backing Mr. Leedham. But others are behind Mr. Hoffa, making Mr. Leedham's uphill battle even more difficult.
Ken Hall ledthe union's parcel division under Mr. Carey and was his right-hand man during a 1997 strike against the United Parcel Service. He is among those now favoring Mr. Hoffa, who has asked him to serve on the committee that negotiates with U.P.S. in bargaining next year.
"People asked me in 1998 what I was going to do, and I said, `If Jim Hoffa does a good job, I'm going to support him,' " said Mr. Hall, who heads a Teamster local in West Virginia. "That's where I'm at. The most important thing is Hoffa has brought this union together. I'm proof of his commitment to reach out regardless of what your political persuasions were in the past."
Ken Paff, national coordinator of the reform-minded Teamsters for a Democratic Union, said Mr. Carey was a victim of campaign aides who had been willing to flout the law to bring about his victory.
"The Carey administration did a lot to transform the Teamsters," Mr. Paff said. "But the Donorgate scandal was certainly a blow to reform."
Mr. Leedham voiced optimism that he and the reform movement would prevail in the election this fall. "I think the reform movement is still very strong in the Teamsters," he said. Of the trial, he said, "My position has been the same: leaders at every level of the union need to be held accountable."