June 3, 2010: Billy Hogan Jr, the former Teamster vice president and head of the Chicago Joint Council, has made a plea bargain to settle contempt charges in federal court. But he vows to continue to press for relief from the Independent Review Board’s ban on his involvement with Teamster members.

On May 27 Hogan appeared in federal court in New York for approval of a settlement in which he agreed to abide by the ban on any contact with Teamster members, and paid a fine of $10,000.

Sources close to Hogan say that while he cannot appeal a settlement, friends of his may pursue legal action to try to end the IRB’s ban on contact with Teamsters, which he claims is a limit on his free speech rights. The issue has been pursued previously, without success.

Hogan was the head of Chicago Local 714, a post he inherited from his father and later passed on to his son as well as the president of Joint Council 25, and Hoffa’s chosen running mate on the Hoffa-Hogan Slate in 1996.

That was derailed when the IRB charged him with making a sweetheart deal in the Las Vegas convention industry with a company in which a Hogan family member was a principal. He, along with Hoffa’s Special Assistant Dane Passo, was given a hearing and banned from the Teamsters Union.

Since that time he has held no Teamster post, but repeatedly defied the ban on contact with Teamster members, contending that it unfairly limits his personal freedom.