All convictions vacated in case of judge who jailed kids for cash.

[Swede]

This guy belongs behind bars for a long time



Seeking to remedy what it deemed a “travesty of justice,” the state Supreme Court on Thursday vacated the convictions of all juveniles who appeared before former Judge Mark Ciavarella from 2003 to 2008 and barred retrials in all but a small portion of those cases.

The ruling essentially adopts in total the report submitted in August by Berks County Judge Arthur Grim, who was appointed to review all juvenile cases handled by Ciavarella after he and his co-defendant, former Judge Michael Conahan, pleaded guilty in February to corruption charges.


http://www.timesleader.com/news/All_Ciavarella_juvie_convictions_vacated_10-30-2009.html

[flyarm]

1. what dispicable judges, and i could not even call them human beings!

snip:

The high court based its ruling on Ciavarella’s admission that he accepted millions of dollars from the owner and builder of two juvenile detention centers to which he sentenced youths, as well as his “systematic” deprivation of the constitutional rights of juveniles who appeared before him.

Federal prosecutors charged Ciavarella and Conahan in January with accepting more than $2.8 million in exchange for rulings that impacted the operation and construction of the two centers. They later withdrew their pleas and were indicted in September on 48 charges, including racketeering, bribery and wire fraud. Their trial is pending.





snip:
“The staggering financial payments made to Ciavarella and Conahan in connection with the Pa Child Care and Western Pa Child Care are well documented,” the court wrote, noting Ciavarella has admitted accepting the money in other court proceedings. “This court cannot have any confidence that Ciavarella decided any Luzerne County juvenile case fairly and impartially while he labored under the specter of his self-interested dealings with the facilities.”

The ruling, which impacts roughly 6,500 cases, is near complete victory for the Juvenile Law Center, a Philadelphia-based advocacy group that filed the petition that was the basis of Grim’s report.

[flyarm]

2. K&R thanks for the thread!

[KansDem]

3. A MODEL student was sent to a detention centre by corrupt judges - for building a spoof MySpace page

Hillary Transue thought she might get a stern lecture when she appeared before a judge in 2007 for building the webpage mocking her headteacher.


Incredibly the judge sentenced her to three months at a juvenile detention centre on a charge of harassment.


But today the judge, Mark A Ciavarella Jr and his colleague, Michael T Conahan, pleaded guilty to taking more than $2.6million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centres.


Prosecutors said that Judge Conahan, 56, secured contracts for the two centres to house juvenile offenders.

Then Judge Ciavarella, 58, carried out the sentencing to keep the centres filled.

Hillary, 17, said: "I felt like I had been thrown into some surreal sort of nightmare.

"All I wanted to know was how this could be fair and why the judge would do such a thing."

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2255203.ece


Judge Michael "FuckFace" Conahan

[derby378]

4. So when does Ciavarella wind up beind bars, himself?

If he isn't incarcerated, the job ain't done.

On edit: Never mind. I just got my question answered...

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1428015/luzerne_county_penn_judges_mark_ciavarella.html?cat=17

Still, seven years isn't enough.

[47of74]

5. The rest of his life isn't long enough for that son of a bitch

And it ought to be in the general population of a maximum security prison.

[FiveGoodMen]

14. I'm right there with ya.

Throw him in the GP and tell everyone what he's there for.

[ThatsMyBarack]

6. Ciavarella & Conahan TO THE HAGUE!

:mad:

[Fumesucker]

7. This is why private prisons are a horrendous and Orwellian idea..

Anyone who thinks this is the only case of judges deliberately sentencing people to prison for personal gain is terminally naive.

This is but the tip of the iceberg.

[TexasObserver]

8. Yeah, this one shocks the conscience.

[lostnfound]

9. WHO paid the bribes and WHEN will THEY be prosecuted?? Prisons FOR PROFIT is the problem.

I find it puzzling that this article has no details about who owns these "two facilities". I doubt that this is isolated to one county. God forbid we pay too much attention to the corporate-side of this corruption.

On edit:
Okay, here's the culprit --
ROBERT POWELL, of Hazleton, an area lawyer and former co-owner of PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care juvenile detention centers, was charged on June 9 with failing to report illegal activity by two former judges. Prosecutors say he paid former judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan $772,500 in kickbacks, often disguising the payments as rental fees for docking his boat at the judges’ condominium in Florida. He pleaded guilty on July 1 and awaits sentencing.

ROBERT MERICLE, of Jackson Township, a major local developer, was charged on Aug. 13 with failing to disclose his knowledge that Conahan and Ciavarella committed income tax evasion by failing to report money they accepted from Mericle and Robert Powell in connection with the operation and construction of the PA and Western PA juvenile detention centers that Mericle built. He pleaded guilty on Sept. 2 and awaits sentencing.

http://www.timesleader.com/news/CORRUPTION_SCANDAL_WHO_rsquo_S_WHO_10-22-2009.html?searchterm=Mark+Ciavarella

[lostnfound]

13. Similar case in TX where bribe-givers were never indicted while bribe-takers went to jail

http://www.texasprisonbidness.org/corplan/texas-private-prison-developers-pushing-detention-center-tohono-oodham-nation

The private prison pushers are being called "the folks from Texas" by opponents of the prison, and they include people involved in Texas' most controversial prison deals. They include James Parkey of prison design firm Corplan and Chris Cuny of prison engineering firm Cuny Corp. Parkey sold the complicated and controversial bond deal that led to the Willacy County Detention Center. The Willacy facility was featured in an excellent expose by Forrest Wilder in the Texas Observer ("Jailbait: Prison companies profit as Raymondville's public debt grows," October 20, 2006).

Underwriting the proposed Arizona detention center is Municipal Capital Market Groups, led by Michael Harling. Harling recently pitched an immigrant family detention center in Willacy County and advocated for a controversial jail privatization scheme in McLennon County, Texas. MCMG was a major player in the earlier Willacy deal that led to bribery convictions for two County Commissioners from Willacy and one from Webb County. No company involved in the Willacy deal, including Corplan, MCMG, construction firm Hale Mills, or private prison operator MTC were ever indicted in the case - a bizarre situation where the bribe-takers were sent to jail, but the bribe-givers were never named.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

10. Darn, it was just the detention facilities that payed the judge

... I was hoping I could pay a judge to jail my kids. Not that I would do that, but there are days ...

and I'd just like the option ...


:hi:

[sarge43]

11. Thanks for posting this.

I've been wondering what happened to that POS and the children he enslaved for profit.

No, seven years is hardly enough punishment.

[AllentownJake]

12. Remember these were Democrats

We have to be mindful of our own and what they are up to.