The most influential labor leader in Philadelphia, and perhaps the entire commonwealth of Pennsylvania, was involved in some sort of physical altercation last month.

According to Craig R. McCoy, Mark Fazlollah, Dylan Purcell and Chris Brennan of the Inquirer, IBEW 98 Business Manager John Dougherty got into a fight with a nonunion contractor Joshua Keesee on January 21st.

Keesee stated that he incident began when Dougherty noticed a union decal on his car. The two got into an argument when Dougherty struck him and Keesee threw a punch but hit one of Dougherty’s companions again.

Dougherty’s spokesman said that Keesee threatened his client’s family and that there was a “brief physical altercation” but that Johnny Doc “was not the aggressor”.

A witness stated that he saw Dougherty and his three companions pursue Keesee and surveillance video appears to substantiate this.

Furthermore, Keesee’s lawyer asserted that Philadelphia DA Seth Williams deliberately passed off the case to Attorney General Kathleen Kane in order to avoid dealing with Dougherty.

Dougherty is a controversial and powerful union head in the Keystone State. For example, just last year his brother Kevin was elected to the State Supreme Court.

UPDATE: The AG’s office released the following statement today:

“In the matter of John Dougherty, Attorney General Kane has set up a conflict wall regarding the decision to accept or deny the referral and/or initiate charges. This action was taken to avoid the appearance of a conflict due to the high profile nature of Mr. Dougherty, who was a donor to Attorney General Kane in 2013.”

“The Office of Attorney General employs capable attorneys who are prepared to make the decision whether to accept and/or prosecute a potential assault case.”

UPDATE 2: Dougherty responded to the Inquirer article in an interview with Philly Voice.