Saturday, August 01, 2009

The Judge doesn't buy it

Plea deals shot down


Ex-judges’ fate now in limbo

It looks like Senior U.S. Judge Edwin M. Kosik agrees with many of us that 7+ years for taking bribes to lock up kids wasn't enough jail time for these 2 crooks. The maximum sentence is 25 years and the judge said the plea called for less jail time than normal sentencing guidelines. Reading his order he is especially miffed at their conduct since the guilty plea. According to the pre-sentence report Michael Conahan is still an arrogant and obstructive asshole and Mark Ciavarella has been making statements to the media that are both self-serving and don't reflect reality. Finders fee my ass, he took money to jail kids.

So what is next? They can:
- Withdraw their guilty pleas within 10 days and proceed to trial.
- Attempt to negotiate another plea agreement.
- Leave their pleas intact and allow Kosik to determine their sentences.


I bet that they opt to go to trial and try to drag this out for years which will add to the frustration of the victims.


Laurene Transue, whose daughter Hillary’s experiences in Ciavarella’s courtroom helped expose his unconstitutional conduct said... “This whole process has taken so long, and my daughter’s whole adjudication hearing lasted 60 seconds. This has been going on for six months, but my daughter had 60 seconds before Ciavarella.”

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

It'll be interesting to see how this impacts the civil cases. Mericle can't be happy with this turn of events as it will now fully vet the "finder's fee" that he failed to issue a 1099 or W-2 for (aid and abetting if it ever occurred) and his back-dating of the "finder's fee agreement". uh-gulp!

The Scranton Guardian said...

Kosik did the right thing.

Austin said...

Most of the kids they sent away were up against minimum sentences. With corrupt judges are saved by maximum sentences. I hope he can sentence them to 25 years for each child they sent away.

Mean Old Man said...

Haven't these two fine young men been through enough already?? A lot of these young punks deserved jail, but now, thanks to the Obama Justice Department, when a snot nosed kid breaks your window, he'll be coddled and rewarded. I was proud that we had a good ol' hanging judge for the long hair twirps who spend their days hanging out at the mini mart and damaging honest peoples property!! May God bless Mr. Ciavarella and Mr. Conahan in the trial ahead. Gort, how about writing an HONEST column for a change!!!! To Hell with You and your commie readers!!!!

Big Dan said...

How come nothing ever happened to Mericle?

Stephen Albert said...

Gort....

While we are at it, can be blame the Obama Administration for the recent heavy rains? How about for Swine flu? How for Ricky Henderson's "Amos-n-Andy" esque Baseball Hall of Fame acceptance speech?

Okay, got that out of my system.

Anyway, I hope this ruling ultimately results in Ciav and Con getting some real jail time. I doubt anyone will ever truly know the damage that they did to so many lives, all in the name of a few Shekels.

Big Dan said...

These judges used the system AND peoples' children to enrich themselves. They caused distrust in the judicial branch by citizens for decades to come. They should be locked up for good, forever. They took an oath and broke the oath. If you don't have faith in the judicial branch, you don't have faith in America. They undermined faith in the country itself.

Big Dan said...

And everyone in any way connected should be locked up for good.