Luzerne County Judges

Skrep must be feeling some relief this week because the focus of the latest outrage in Luzerne County is not on him. I'm somewhat reluctant to criticize our judges because you never know when you might find yourself standing in front of one of them because you got attacked by a tree or something.

A few weeks ago it was revealed that then President Judge Mike Conahan steered over a million dollars of business to his brother-in-law when he was presiding over the juvenile court then it was reported that his successor, Mark Ciavarella, was railroading kids through the system possibly violating their constitutional right to an attorney. Ciavarella sent many of these "delinquents" to the PA Child Care facility owned by Robert Powell. Now the CV is reporting that Ciavarella and Conahan have a business relationship with Powell.


In February Powell was party to a lawsuit that was presided over by Ciavarella that resulted in a $3.4 million verdict that was in Powell's favor. I'm not a legal ethics expert but I would think that a judge should recuse himself from a case that involves one of his business partners.

On a related note Steve Corbett was in lather today on WILK urging people to file a complaint with the Judicial Conduct Board of Pennsylvania about all of this. Right now they are busy conducting a trial of Ann Lokuta because she hurt some peoples feelings and didn't wash her hair everyday.

Ciavarella-Powell relationship questioned

Documents link county judges to project tied to juvie center owner

County officials reviewing options on juvenile facility

Business ties of judges are questioned