By his own admission, Laborers Local 91 member Andrew Shomers took part in a mass assault on workers from another union, bullied a much older man on another job, helped do hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage at various construction sites and even threw a homemade bomb through the window of a house occupied by non-union employees.
And last Friday, at long last, one of the key enforcers for what federal prosecutors call "the Local 91 criminal enterprise" did the right thing.
Shomers pleaded guilty to felony racketeering, making him the highest-placed member of the union to reject the code of silence that kept the late Michael "Butch" Quarcini in control of Local 91 for 35 years.
Shomers, 42, clasped his hands behind him, pursed his lips and looked down as Assistant U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul spent the better part of two hours reading his plea agreement in federal court in Buffalo. The 24-page document outlined Shomers' admissions, including a number of incidents of violence or sabotage not previously mentioned in court papers.
"It was just getting too deep, too much," Shomers said of the frequent orders from former Local 91 President Mark Congi to wreak havoc on any worker or company that defied the demands of the union's hierarchy. "The only time he called me was when he wanted something done."
Judge Richard A. Arcara, who was aghast at the intensity of the attacks and intimidation, noted that Shomers would face the scorn of some union members and others who believe there's something noble in remaining silent about despicable acts.
"That's nonsense," Arcara said. "Those people don't set the standards by which this country lives."
The judge was stunned by the standards by which Local 91 lived before 14 members and officers were rounded up in pre-dawn raids on May 17, 2002.
"I've been in this business a long time and this is some of the worst conduct I've ever heard," he said after Hochul, the lead prosecutor in the case, finished reading the list of attacks Mr. Shomers admitted taking part in or having knowledge of:
Breaking into the Target store on Niagara Falls Boulevard in May of 1996 and ruining 5,500 square feet of newly installed tile floor by pouring liquid adhesive on it, as well as pouring it into a toolbox used by union carpenters. The break-in took place during a dispute between the Vulcan Shaw Floor Company, which employed the carpenters, and Local 91 over who would perform prep work on the floor installation. The incident was part of an effort by Local 91 leaders to force the Louis P. Ciminelli Corp., which was overseeing construction, to put "unwanted and unnecessary laborers" on the job, according to the plea agreement.
Following two non-union employees of Sansla, Inc., a New Jersey-based company performing asbestos removal at the Niagara Falls water plant, home after work on April 21, 1997, to find out where they were staying, then returning with two other Local 91 members later that night.
Shomers admitted throwing an explosive taped to a brick through a bathroom window at the house. A second device, thrown by an unnamed member of the union, detonated next to the head of one of the workers, causing him permanent hearing damage in one ear.
Along with more than a dozen other Local 91 members, attacking four union tile setters during construction of the Wegman's store on Military Road on Sept. 16, 1998.
A dispute over jurisdiction on the project came to a head when Shomers, Congi, fellow indictees Dominick Dellaccio, Salvatore Bertino, Andrew Tomascik Jr., Anthony Cerrone, Stephen Markle and others surrounded and attacked the four tile setters employed by the E.G. Sackett Company, "punching, kicking, stomping and otherwise striking" the four men.
Using "fear and intimidation in an effort to obtain certain jobs, and the payment of wages and benefits associated with those jobs," from union carpenters employed by the Mader Construction Company during construction of the Niagara Falls High School" in 1999 and 2000.
While those incidents had been described in the federal indictments in the case, Shomers agreed to cooperate with prosecutors regarding several incidents of sabotage he said were ordered by Congi and for which no one has yet been indicted:
Shomers became the fourth Local 91 member to enter a guilty plea in the case, following Brian Perry, James McKeown and Robert Aleks. Cerrone, who was convicted in the Wegman's assault in December 2004, agreed last month to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a reduction in sentence.
As a result of his cooperation, Hochul agreed to recommend a prison term of 51 to 63 months at sentencing, scheduled for Nov. 21. Hochul declined comment when asked if Shomers' statements will lead to more indictments or trigger a chain reaction of plea deals with the remaining indictees, who are scheduled to go to trial en masse in September.
"We intend to pursue all these leads to the full extent of the law," Hochul said.
There are some around Niagara Falls who maintain that the Local 91 members who have admitted wrongdoing and agreed to help the prosecution should adhere to some misguided code of loyalty.
Of course, those people aren't looking at going away for 20 years.
If anything, Shomers, Perry, Cerrone and the rest were loyal for too long to a regime that did little for them in return -- other than get them sent to federal prison.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | June 14 2005 |