Shipping executive accused of bribery

Federal prosecutors say Joseph F. Casella paid Perry Harvey Jr. to secure lower labor costs at the Tampa port.

By LARRY DOUGHERTY

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 23, 2000

TAMPA -- Bribery charges were filed Thursday against a shipping executive in a federal case that implicates former Tampa City Council member Perry Harvey Jr., a top union official on Tampa's docks.

Joseph F. Casella, 58, who runs Harborside Refrigerated Services, is charged with paying bribes in exchange for lower labor costs at the port. He was arrested and released Thursday after a hearing in federal court.

The alleged recipient of the bribes was Harvey, according to a federal agent's affidavit. Yet Harvey was not arrested or charged with a crime Thursday.

When asked why, federal prosecutors said only that their investigation is continuing.

Harvey, 69, could not be reached for comment. He is the president of International Longshoremen's Local 1402 in Tampa, and a vice president of the union's leadership based in New York.

Thursday's charges came nine years after Harvey was indicted, and later cleared, of stealing from the union he has now run for nearly 30 years. Harvey was the first African-American ever elected to the Tampa City Council and was a longtime crusader for civil rights while in office.

Casella and his attorney declined comment.

The bribes Casella allegedly paid Harvey were $2,000 worth of publicly reported campaign contributions to Harvey's unsuccessful 1996 campaign for the County Commission, the affidavit said.

The contributions were checks drawn on accounts of Harborside and its corporate parent, Eller & Co. of Fort Lauderdale. Harvey reported the contributions on campaign reports he filed with the Hillsborough County supervisor of elections.

At the same time Harvey was accepting the contributions, he was negotiating a contract with Casella that resulted in cuts of $2 per hour, per employee, in Harborside's payments into a pension, welfare, vacation and holiday fund established for the union local, the affidavit said. Those cuts saved Harborside about $132,000 in the year ending Sept. 30, 1998, the affidavit said.

In court papers, federal prosecutors argued the contributions violated the Taft-Hartley Act, which forbids payments passing from employers to union officials.

"Harvey sold his "rank-and-file' "up the river,' as the evidence clearly suggests," a legal memorandum said in part.

At Casella's initial appearance in federal court Thursday, it was revealed that Casella had secretly agreed to cooperate with federal agents investigating Harvey on labor racketeering claims in February 1999.

David M. Long, an agent with the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General, testified that Harvey was overheard using the names "pipsqueak" and "parasite" for a person he blamed for instigating the federal investigation.

Casella also was overheard saying, "In Philly, they break your g--d--- legs when you don't pay back loans," Long testified.

Federal prosecutor Jeff Del Fuoco said Casella had been arrested Thursday for violating terms of his cooperation agreement. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo said he didn't understand why Casella was arrested Thursday when he already had been charged with Taft-Hartley violations in 1999.

"This is befuddling to me, Mr. Del Fuoco," Pizzo said. "I haven't seen anything like that. It's not illegal. It's certainly unusual."

Del Fuoco also told the judge that Casella had a controlled substance in his wallet when he was arrested. But Casella's attorney, Kevin Napper, told the judge that the substance was an aphrodisiac Casella had bought at a Jamaican store in Ybor City.

Napper said Casella has been aware of the investigation for some time, has cooperated with investigators and has appeared when requested. Pizzo released Casella on his own recognizance.

Harvey's 1991 federal charges were prompted by a 1989 series in the St. Petersburg Times entitled "A Trust Betrayed." The stories said Harvey sidestepped union rules to benefit himself and shortchange longshoremen.

The federal jury that acquitted Harvey on charges of stealing $225,000 from the union local criticized investigators for presenting a weak and contradictory case.

Information from Times files was used in this report. Larry Dougherty can be reached at (813) 226-3337 or dougherty@sptimes.com

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