2 PA judges plead guilty in kickback scheme
Thursday, February 12, 2009
(02-12) 13:22 PST Scranton, Pa. (AP) --
Two Pennsylvania judges charged with taking more than $2 million in
kickbacks to send youth offenders to privately run detention centers
pleaded guilty to fraud Thursday in one of the most stunning cases of
judicial corruption on record.
Prosecutors allege Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael
Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in
lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, possibly
tainting the convictions of thousands of juvenile offenders.
The judges pleaded guilty in federal court in Scranton to honest
services fraud and tax fraud. Their plea agreements call for sentences
of more than seven years in prison. They were permitted to remain free
pending sentencing.
The gray-haired jurists said little at Thursday's hearing, and declined to comment to reporters afterward.
Prosecutors described a scheme in which Conahan, the former
president judge of Luzerne County, shut down the county-owned juvenile
detention center in 2002 and signed an agreement with PA Child Care LLC
to send youth offenders to its new facility outside Wilkes-Barre.
Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, sent youths to the
detention center while he was taking payments, prosecutors said.
For years, youth advocacy groups complained that Ciavarella was
overly harsh and ran roughshod over youngsters' constitutional rights.
Ciavarella sent a quarter of his juvenile defendants to detention
centers from 2002 to 2006, compared with a statewide rate of one in 10.
Among the offenders were teenagers who were locked up for months for
stealing loose change from cars, writing a prank note and possessing
drug paraphernalia. Many had never been in trouble before, and some
were imprisoned even after probation officers recommended against it.
Many of the children didn't have attorneys.
Susan Mischanski, 46, whose teenage son appeared in Ciavarella's
courtroom without an attorney, said Thursday she hopes the judge gets
more than seven years behind bars. Ciavarella sentenced her son — a
first-time offender charged with simple assault — to 90 days at a
juvenile wilderness camp.
"Only because he hurt my child, I'd like to see him put away for longer," said Mischanski, who attended the hearing.
Ciavarella has specifically denied sending kids to jail for cash,
and had indicated he would not go through with the guilty plea if the
government offered that as evidence.
Thus prosecutors Thursday skirted over many of the allegations
contained in their original criminal complaint, presenting only enough
evidence to establish that crimes had occurred.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod said after the hearing
that the government continues to allege a quid pro quo. "We're not
negotiating that, no. We're not backing off," he said.
The prosecutor said it will be up to U.S. District Judge Edwin
Kosik, who will determine the judges prison terms after a lengthy
pre-sentence investigation, to settle the matter. Kosik could reject
the proposed sentence as too light if he decides there was a quid pro
quo.
"I think there will be significant disagreements as to what the
facts are," Zubrod said. "Was there a connection between the payments
and the money, and young people going to prison? Those are issues that
are going to be addressed later by the court. There's going to be
plenty of time to fight about that."
The judges were charged Jan. 26 and subsequently removed from the
bench by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The high court on Wednesday
appointed a senior judge from Berks County to review cases handled by
Ciavarella dating back to 2003.
"The goal of this court is to determine whether the alleged travesty
of juvenile justice occurred, and if it did, to identify the affected
juveniles and rectify the situation as fairly and swiftly as possible,"
the justices said in a statement.
Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim must report his findings in four months.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/11/national/a112145...