Jury deliberations underway in KCK in Boilermakers monthlong racketeering trial
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The judge gave the case to the jury for deliberation just before noon on Tuesday.
- Defendants face embezzlement, health care fraud, wire fraud and RICO conspiracy charges.
- Judge Crabtree acquitted McManamon on the racketeering conspiracy charge last week.
Jury deliberations are underway in the monthlong racketeering trial of four former Boilermakers members accused of embezzling millions from the Kansas City-based union.
Senior U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree submitted the case to jurors just before noon on Tuesday in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas.
The Boilermakers union was based in Kansas City, Kansas, for more than a century before moving to Kansas City in 2023.
The defendants are charged with using union funds for salaries and benefits for no-show jobs, luxury international travel, fine dining, vacation payouts and unauthorized loans.
On trial are former International President Newton Jones, 72, and his wife, Kateryna, 33, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; former International Secretary-Treasurer William Creeden, 78, of Kearney, Missouri; and former International Vice President Lawrence McManamon, 78, of Rocky River, Ohio.
The four defendants are among seven former union members indicted in August 2024 for conspiracy to commit offenses under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, as well as embezzlement, health care fraud, wire fraud and other felonies.
The racketeering conspiracy count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
On Thursday, Crabtree acquitted McManamon on the racketeering conspiracy charge on the grounds that the evidence against him was insufficient to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Six embezzlement counts against McManamon remain.
Closing arguments in the case began on Monday and wrapped up Tuesday morning.
‘The odd woman out’
Kateryna Jones’ attorney, John Davis, told jurors Tuesday that she was “different from the rest” of the defendants.
Kateryna Jones is a Ukrainian native, he said, who has lived in the United States for about 10 years.
“Mrs. Jones is somewhat of the odd woman out,” he said.
Davis said he and Kateryna Jones agreed with the argument made Monday by Newton Jones’ and Creeden’s attorneys that there was no evidence the defendants were part of a conspiracy to steal union funds.
“That conspiracy, that agreement, didn’t exist and doesn’t exist,” Davis said.
He pointed to the team of attorneys at the prosecution’s table, saying there was “an incredible amount of power” on that side of the courtroom — all employed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
“A prosecutor can point a finger at any citizen … and accuse them of some criminal act,” Davis said. If someone is wrongly accused, he said, “that scarlet letter is going to stay with them forever.”
He asked jurors if they knew who serves as a safeguard to keep that power in check.
“You do,” he told them. “You are left to be the ones to check that power.”
Davis denied the government’s allegations that Kateryna Jones received a hefty salary for doing little or no work for the union. He said the government didn’t try to find out what she did, and those who testified said they didn’t know.
“No one bothered to ask, but they sure as heck got on the stand and said she didn’t work 30 hours a week,” he said. He called it “an appalling act of not giving a damn.”
Then he motioned to Kateryna Jones, who was sitting at the defendant’s table.
“Kate, can you stand up for a minute?” he asked. When she stood, Davis said, “How intimidating is that?”
Davis said that as special assistant to the president, Kateryna handled Newton Jones’ travel arrangements, accompanied him and made sure his 200 days on the road each year “ran like clockwork.”
Several witnesses, he said, testified that they saw Kateryna Jones at union conferences and events.
“Could it be she had a role to play at the meetings and had to be there and did it as part of her duties?” Davis asked. “We call that working.”
He noted that the jury instructions said that in order to be a conspiracy, the defendants had to participate in a shared criminal purpose and those involved had to act “knowingly and willfully.”
“Kate Jones went to work every day,” he said. “She did not act knowingly, and she did not act willfully.”
Davis said the government had failed in proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“The only verdicts possible are not guilty across the board,” he said.
‘Acted in good faith’
Both Davis and McManamon’s attorney, Kevin Spellacy, pointed to a jury instruction that said “the good faith of a defendant is a complete defense to all charges contained in the Indictment because good faith on the part of a defendant, simply, is inconsistent with an intent or willfulness to commit the crimes charged in the Indictment.”
An honest mistake in judgment, the instruction went on to say, does not rise to the level of criminal conduct.
Spellacy said McManamon was known to always show up for union executive council meetings and events and that he “acted in good faith” when he attended the gatherings and conferences held overseas at Newton Jones’ direction.
The union was transparent about those international trips, Spellacy said, adding that they were “not in the dark of night.” The Boilermaker Reporter, the union’s quarterly newsletter, regularly published articles about them, he said.
Of the 13 international vice presidents who held office during the time frame of the charges in the case, Spellacy said, 90% of them traveled internationally. But none of the other vice presidents were charged, he said.
Spellacy also disputed the government’s allegations that McManamon had a union-issued American Express card.
“There was zero evidence that Larry had a card,” he said. It wasn’t until the 11th day of the trial, Spellacy said, that the government acknowledged he didn’t have one.
Spellacy told jurors that since the government dropped the conspiracy charge against McManamon last week, it could no longer call him a racketeer.
However, he said, “They still want to call him a thief. They still want to call him a crook.”
Spellacy posed a final question to the jury.
“Did this 78-year-old man, who joined the union at 18 … willfully steal from his union brothers and sisters? I just ask you to apply your common sense.”
Prosecutor says ‘I call BS’
To begin the government’s rebuttal, prosecutor Vince Falvo, with the Justice Department’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section, brought up a bluffing game kids used to play known as “I call BS.”
He said that same concept applies to the trial. When he hears arguments and sees facts that don’t make sense, he said, “I call BS.”
Falvo disputed McManamon’s argument that Newton Jones was his boss, so he followed his directives and went where he was told to go.
“He’s not just a regular employee,” Falvo said. “He’s a vice president of the organization.”
Other current international vice presidents don’t go on trips, he said. But McManamon went on a trip to England for two weeks and traveled to France, Denmark, Thailand, Peru, Australia and Italy.
Email exchanges, Falvo said, showed that “they are positively giddy about going.”
“Some of those itineraries are unbelievable,” he said.
Falvo turned to Creeden’s argument that his job was to sign checks, not to control the purse strings.
“I call bull---- on that,” he said.
“His job is to make sure the funds are spent solely for the benefit of the members,” he said.
Falvo said Newton Jones made 29 trips to Odessa, Ukraine, to pick up Kateryna and take her on trips. And Creeden allowed it, he said.
“Mr. Creeden knew what was going on,” he said.
Falvo said he also was “calling bull----” on the defense’s contention that Newton Jones and Creeden saved the Bank of Labor by implementing a plan that helped increase the bank’s total assets from $570 million in 2008 to $1.1 billion in 2025.
The union is a majority shareholder in the bank.
According to the government, Jones made himself the bank CEO in 2010 and created the position of senior executive vice president for Creeden. Not only were the two receiving pay as members of the banks’ board of directors, the government said, they also were both paid hundreds of thousands a year for their alleged full-time positions of CEO and vice president even though they performed no more work than they did as board members.
“They did not save the bank,” Falvo said. “Twenty million dollars of Boilermakers funds saved the bank. The Boilermakers members saved the bank.”
In closing, Falvo told jurors that “the most important people in this trial aren’t in this room.”
“Do remember the men and women in this union,” he said. “It’s their union, not Newton Jones’ union. And their money is at stake.”
Others charged in case
Three others charged in the case have already pleaded guilty. Warren Fairley — who briefly took over as Boilermakers president in 2023 after Jones was ousted by his executive council for misusing union money — and Jones’ son, Cullen Jones, pleaded guilty in March to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of embezzlement from a labor organization. Both are scheduled to be sentenced June 30.
Kathy Stapp, who became the union’s International Secretary-Treasurer after Creeden resigned in 2023, pleaded guilty in December 2024 to one count of racketeering conspiracy. Her sentencing is scheduled for July 7.
And in a related case, another former union executive, Tyler Brown, pleaded guilty in May 2024 to one count of racketeering conspiracy. Brown, who served as the union’s chief of staff and as special assistant to Jones, was accused of scheming with “others known and unknown” to steal from the union. His sentencing is also scheduled for July 7.
Fairley, Stapp and Brown testified for the government during the trial.
