Lokuta gets a break

HARRISBURG – The state Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a stay of the Court of Judicial Discipline’s ruling that removed judge Ann Lokuta from office and directed the Secretary of the Commonwealth not to place her judicial seat on the May ballot.


Lokuta has contended all along that charges against her were orchestrated by admitted crook Judge Michael Conahan with the help of the other Juvie Brother Mark Ciavarella and Conahan's cousin Bill Sharkey because she was cooperating with the Federal corruption probe. Throw in the involvement of his business partners Jill Moran, Richard Sprague and Patrick Judge in this seemed to convice the state Supreme Court stay her removal from the bench because of after-discovered evidence that was revealed as part of the corruption probe in the county judiciary. The Supremes ordered the Court of Judicial Discipline to determine whether it should reconsider it's decision to remove her and grant a new hearing.

This throws a monkey wrench into the campaigns of the 17 Judicial hopefuls because now there will be only 2 seats up for grabs instead of 3.


Timeline from the CV:

April 2004: A complaint from a former Lokuta staffer leads to an investigation by the state Judicial Conduct Board.

April 2005: The Conduct Board formally informs Lokuta of its investigation.


November 2006: Lokuta is charged with six counts of misconduct by the state Judicial Conduct Board. She is accused of being abusive to court staff and attorneys and late or absent for court proceedings.

September 2007-January 2008: Lokuta is tried before a three-judge panel from the state Court of Judicial Discipline. Lokuta testifies she is the victim of a conspiracy orchestrated by former president judge Michael T. Conahan, who was angered because she talked to federal investigators about his handling of case assignments. Conahan used his position to influence other prosecution witnesses, she testifies.

Oct. 30, 2008: The Court of Judicial Discipline finds Lokuta guilty.

Nov. 5, 2008: The court suspends Lokuta without pay.

Dec. 9, 2008: Lokuta is officially removed from the bench.

Jan. 6, 2009: Lokuta appeals to the state Supreme Court.

Jan. 26, 2009: Conahan and fellow judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., who also testified against Lokuta, are charged with accepting $2.6 million in kickbacks. They eventually plead guilty and are relieved of judicial duties.

Feb. 3, 2009: Another witness against Lokuta, county court administrator William T. Sharkey Sr., is charged with embezzling $70,000 in court funds. He eventually pleads guilty.

March 3, 2009: Lokuta asks the state Supreme Court to postpone an election to fill her seat.

March 25, 2009: The Supreme Court cancels the election and orders the Court of Judicial Discipline to consider holding a hearing on whether evidence of courthouse corruption involving prosecution witnesses would have affected the outcome of Lokuta’s trial.

"Robert Powell had bills to pay"

Witnesses back Lokuta claim of conspiracy

Lokuta: Conahan was courthouse king


Sandra Brulo said she was called into Ciavarella's chambers and Ciavarella handed her the phone, saying "the boss" wanted to talk to her. "Judge Conahan began screaming at me and accused me of being responsible for the ramping up limits. He said Robert Powell had bills to pay and that the ramping limits were limiting the admissions," Brulo said in the statement.


I've always thought that Judge Ann Lokuta got railroaded and Michael Conahan orchastrated her removal from the bench. Now 4 witnesses have made statements suporting her claim.


In addition to Brulo, statements were provided by Patricia Benzi, a security guard at the courthouse; Carolee Medico Olenginski, former county prothonotary; and Joseph S. Novak, a plaintiff in a civil case before Lokuta.

In her statement, Benzi said she was once asked to deliver an envelope from Billie D’Elia to Lokuta. Benzi said she gave the envelope to Lokuta’s secretary, Maureen Gushanas. Later that day, Gushanas returned the envelope to her and told her


“You tell him my judge isn’t like the rest of the judges!”

Here comes da Judge

What, it's noon already?

I've heard the stories about Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Ann Lokuta sometimes eccentric behavior. If you read the complaint of the state’s Judicial Conduct Board it reads like a script of a bad comedy. Accusing her of not bathing, wearing soiled clothes and yelling at people is petty. The hints about her sexuality interfering with her duties have come up before. A former female clerk had filed sexual harrassment charges in 1999 that weren't proven. When she was up for retention in 2001 the word went out to vote no and she only got 57% of the vote in her favor. The other Judges on the ballot that year received 70%+.

The TL article has the highlights of some of the more outrageous accusations and the CV has some follow-up. The most serious allegation is that she used a court employee as her personal slave:

From 1999 to 2001, Lokuta “misused” worker Judith Flaherty by having her run personal errands on county time, the charges say. Flaherty allegedly had to clean Lokuta’s bathroom, kitchen, hallway, living room, scrub her floor by hand, take her car to the car wash, and do yard work at Lokuta’s home, among other chores. Flaherty was at Lokuta’s home performing the tasks for weeks and months at a time.

But the other shoe will drop in this if it goes to a hearing and it will be fun to hear her side of the story. This charge caught my attention:

Lokuta has also allegedly directed her staff to not interact with other court personnel or judges and continually gives negative commentary from the bench about President Judge Michael Conahan.

A Big Fat Slob has dealt with our local legal system and has concluded we need merit selection of Judges. I agree.

Ann Lokuta feels vindicated

It looks like Lokuta may have some additional grounds to appeal her removal from the bench alleging that Mike Conahan perjured himself at her hearing before the Court of Judicial Discipline. It is well known that Conahan was behind the charges being filed against her.


SCRANTON -

“I think it’s a sad day for the citizens of Luzerne County, and yet I find a certain vindication in this, because for years I’ve been asking for the (court) budget,” Lokuta said. “I wasn’t the only judge in Luzerne County who tried to make inquiry. Perhaps I’m the only one that bore the greatest consequence, the sacrifice of my judicial career, because I was outward in that attempt. People knew what was going on...Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella were the legal puppet masters over all of the staff in the Luzerne County court system, and if anyone dared to step up and ask them questions, they stepped on them like little ants,” Lokuta said. “I’m living proof of that, but I’m not done yet.”

Lokuta was right

The big headline today is that the Juvie Brothers have been hit with a 48 count indictment including racketeering, extortion, bribery, money laundering, fraud and tax violations. The details of the indictment haven't yet been reported on the US Attorney's website or in the press. Senior Judge Edwin M. Kosik rejected Michael Conahan's and Mark Ciavarella's plea agreement last month charging them with only 2 crimes and agreed 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 was especially miffed at their conduct since the guilty plea.

The Legal Intelligencer detailed many of their other crimes in a story in July and drops this bomb today.

A detailed complaint was filed against former Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Conahan with the Judicial Conduct Board in 2006, alleging wide-spread corruption including case-fixing, mob ties and the improper placement of juveniles in a privately owned juvenile detention facility.

When asked who might have filed the complaint, several sources speculated that Lokuta had written it. Lokuta denied authoring the complaint.

Asked who had, Lokuta replied: "One of my staffers."

I think Ann may have had some input in writing the complaint. The JCB that voted to remove her from the bench also allowed Conahan and Ciavarella to testify against her. Conahan's business partner, Pat Judge, was one of the people who sat in judgement of her. Her fate is in the hands of the State Supreme Court.

Ex-judges hammered with 48 counts

Ex-judges hit with 48 counts

Rumors of corruption and Lokuta tries to save her robes

Court filing: Lokuta will testify on ‘apparent’ federal probe

Luzerne County Judge Ann H. Lokuta is volunteering to testify about her participation in an “apparent” federal investigation related to the county courthouse, according to a document filed Friday in the judge’s misconduct case.

The document outlines the reasons why Lokuta plans to call 70 witnesses in her case, but does not divulge the focus of the “apparent” investigation or what division of county government, if any, may be involved.

The rumor of a FBI probe into the doings of the Luzerne County Judges have been rampant for some time. Some of it is just crazy with reports of 30 agents hanging around the courthouse like that many strange faces wouldn't be noticed. There are even stories of people wearing wires talking to our local Solomons hoping to get the goods on them. There is supposed to be a Grand Jury empaneled that will soon return indictments for influence peddling and outright bribery.

We will see.

Ann Lokuta booted

Pending appeal

HARRISBURG - Luzerne County Judge Ann H. Lokuta will be removed from the bench, the state Court of Judicial Discipline ruled in a 6-1 decision today. Lokuta will not be allowed to hold any other court office.

I agree with the Yonk: This punishment does not fit the crime or perceived crimes... Lokuta is gone because all of her fellow Judges (two who have some worries ahead of them I've heard) complained about her behavior. The staff on the third floor was angry because the Judge, a working class daughter of coal miner parents didn't think anyone born on third base was entitled to say they hit a triple. So they got even. And they won.

Her cooperation with the investigation of the business dealings of then President Judge Michael Conahan may have played a roll in this. And it's no secret that they can't stand each other and Conahan was behind the charges being brought against her.

End of the line for Lokuta

It was along shot that the US Supreme Court would hear case the case of Judge Ann Lokuta and yesterday they made it official.

U.S. Supreme Court denies Lokuta a hearing

I have linked to many stories of the last few years documenting the raw deal Lokuta got from the Court of Judicial Discipline and the appellate courts. She complained to the CJD in 2006 about Michael Conahan, alleging wide-spread corruption including case-fixing, mob ties and the improper placement of juveniles in a privately owned juvenile detention facility. Her allegations turned out to be true.


Remember that she was not convicted of doing anything illegal and her chief accusers are admitted criminals led by Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, Conahan's cousin Bill Sharkey who is in jail for being a thief and "poor, poor pitiful me" disgraced former Prothonotary Jill Moran. One of the people that sat in judgement of her was Richard Sprague who was a lawyer for Robert Powell who was one of the people paying off the Judges. Powell is a law partner and business partner of Jill Moran. Powell, Moran, Conahan and Ciavarella are also business partners as well as Pat Judge.

This is another miscarriage of justice and cries out for reform of our judicial system.
Judges on Merit has been pushing to change the way we select statewide judges advocating a vetting process and appointment system for appellate court judges. The present system of electing judges has some serious problems. The judicial elections are usually under the radar races decided by party affiliation and who can raise the most money from the lawyers that will later appear before them. I would go further and appoint the judges of the county court of common pleas. Do you think Michael Conahan could have a survived a background check after his implication in the Empire drug ring?

Luzerne County update

“Next year is not what I am ruling on.”- Judge Ann Lokuta


Luzerne County Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla is promissing cuts in next year's budget but Judge Lokuta doesn't buy into it. Walter Griffith and Ed Chesnovitch have been drilling county officials in the hearings on their request to borrow $16 million to cover last year's bills and she has let them question the officials dealing with this mess.

It would be helpful if Sam Diaz and Sam Guesto testified on how the county got into this bind in the first place.

Petrilla wants to cut 20 percent from the county’s 2009 budget


Judge Lokuta will decide if county can borrow $16 M


Judge grills Petrilla on ’08 deficit


The latest version of the Life Transiition plan claims that $1.8 million will be saved in 2009 with the acceptance of an early-retirement incentive plan by 127 county employees. The last time they tried this the county hired back many of the so called retired employees through a temp agency. I have yet to see an accounting or progress report that documents any money that has been saved. The temp agency that the Bond Brothers (Greg Skrepenak and Todd Vonderheid) used was One Source Staffing Solutions owned by 10th CD Republican candidate Chris Hackett who gave his first ever political contribution to the Bond Brothers reelection committee.



Musto chosen to fill county judge vacancy


Joe Musto, brother of State Senator Ray Musto, will serve out the term of Judge Michael Conahan on the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas who supposedly resigned last year. Conanhan has moved on to being a senior Judge presiding over bench trials that everyone who pays attention knows who will win. The rumor mill says that Conahan is in deep doo doo because of his actions involving PA Child Care. Musto was appointed to the bench in 1993 by Governor Casey but lost the following election to Conahan. I think we got that one wrong.

The Judge Ann Lokuta trial

What makes you think she is a witch?

Well, she turned me into a newt.

A newt?

I got better.

Burn her anyway!

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That's about the only kind of hearsay that Lokuta hasn't endured in the Court of Judicial Discipline this week. Most of the testimony seems to be "she hurt my feelings." But no paper trail was offered to support the allegations of rude behavior or inefficient administration of her courtroom. One witness said she called then President Judge Mike Conahan a few names which might be the reason for all of this. The rumours of a federal corruption probe at the courthouse didn't come up but that can of worms might be opened when Lokuta gets to present her defense in December.

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The play by play can be found at The Lu Lac Political Letter.

Lokuta appeals

I won’t stop at the (state) Supreme Court. I will take this to the logical conclusion, because I am completely, completely innocent of these allegations. I hate to use the term innocent — because this isn’t criminal, it’s quasi-criminal — but this is nothing more than exaggeration, hyperbole of the witnesses-” Luzerne County Judge Ann Lokuta.


I still think that removing her from the bench was overkill. She was not accused or convicted of any crime. I wonder if the Court of Judicial Discipline is looking into the activities of some of our other esteemed Luzerne County jurists.

Lokuta wants decission tossed

HARRISBURG – Saying it would be “easier to unscramble an egg than to extract untainted testimony” from her misconduct trial, former Luzerne County Judge Ann Lokuta on Monday filed a legal brief urging the state Court of Judicial Discipline to dismiss or reopen her case.

In her brief she blasts the disciplinary court’s chief judge, Richard Sprague, accusing him of a conflict of interest because he was the lawyer for PA Child Care owner Robert Powell. Powell has been named as one of the people that was paying bribes to the Juvie Brothers, former Luzerne County Judges Conahan and Ciavarella. I think she has a good case and at the least she deserves a new hearing.

Incestuous criminal cauldron

That is probably a better name than Juvie Brothers or Cash for Kids to describe what has been going on in Luzerne County for years. Everybody who is anybody is connected in the courthouse, statehouse, city hall or a local school board be it by a relative, high/law school pal or just did it the old fashion way by giving a campaign contribution.

The headline comes from Judge Ann Lokuta's latest filing in her appeal to the PA Supreme Court regarding her removal from the bench because she was occasionally late for work, sometimes didn't take a shower and was rude to people. By that standard I think many of us might be out of work.


When you look at the cast of crooks that wanted to get rid of Lokuta because she contends that she was cooperating with the investigation I think that at the least she deserves a new hearing. Remember that she was not convicted of doing anything illegal and her chief accusers are admitted criminals led by Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, Conahan's cousin Bill Sharkey who is headed to jail for being a thief and "poor, poor pitiful me" disgraced former Prothonotary Jill Moran. One of the people that sat in judgement of her was Richard Sprague who was a lawyer for Robert Powell who was one of the people paying off the Judges. Powell is a law partner and business partner of Jill Moran. Powell, Moran, Conahan and Ciavarella are also business partners.
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It doesn't begin or end with this case as we all know the only way to get a job in local government is to know somebody or pay them off with a campaign contribution. Just about every School District in the country is screaming for teachers but around here you better have a relative on the board or they won't even look at you. And we always lament why our educated young people keep moving away.

Luzerne County Judges

We will be electing 6 new Judges of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas next month. There are 7 candidates and I have met 6 of them. They are all good people that will replace the disgraced Juvie Brothers Conahan and Ciavarella. LuLac tells about them: These convicted Judges were sneaky, conniving, vindictive, powerful and ruthless bastards. Ask a former Judge named Lokuta. I don't want to open the whole Lokuta thing again but me and the Yonk agree that she was fucked over by Conahan and the Judicial Conduct Board that had a few of his acquaintances sitting in judgement of her. She was not convicted of a crime and probably deserved a kick in pants but overturning an election is extreme.


5 of the 7 candidates secured the nomination of both the Democratic and Republican party's in May. I hate cross filing for Judge and School Board because these are political positions and we should decide in the general election not the primary. The convential wisdom is that the 5 who got double nominations will win although anything can happen. That's why we have elections.

The double five are:

Jennifer Rogers

Lesa Gelb

Mike Vough

Joe Skarosky

Fred Pieratoni

That leaves the odd man (person) out. The race for the 6th spot is between Rebublican Dick Hughes and Dem Molly Mirabito

This is a tough call for me. I have had a few discussions with Hughes and Molly. They both came to Blogfest and the lawyers I know highly recommended them both.

My solution to this delimma is to bullet vote for Mirabito and Hughes.

Moran vs. Lokuta?

Mike Sisak has this tidbit in today's CV:


Luzerne County Prothonotary Jill Moran said Thursday she has not made a decision on whether she will run for re-election this fall. Moran, a partner in the Butler Township law firm The Powell Group, could face a challenge from former Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Ann H. Lokuta, who has expressed interest in the position.


If this does happen it will the most entertaining race of the year pitting the old boy network against someone who stepped on their toes and paid the price.

The Yonk gets blocked

The Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader sometimes invites comments on their stories. If the story is of interest to me I usually read them since I'm always interested what the locals are thinking. Some of the comments are very funny, occassionally outrageous and sometimes "politcally incorrect." The TL policy about posting comments has the usual prohibitions about hate speech, obscenities, etc. So I was surprised to read that local blogger David Yonki of The Lu Lac Political Letter was censored as the Yonkster is always a well spoken gentleman. He reports that he posted a comment about the Judge Lokuta controversy citing his blog and this one that was wasn't posted:

The Times Leader ran a story on Sunday about Judge Ann Lokuta. After it, they asked for comments. I posted one, leaving my full name as well as my blog address as well as that of Gort 42 ( http://gort42.blogspot.com/ ) since we both did stories on the Judge’s plight. But the Leader chose not to post my thoughts, perhaps they were threatened by more substantial facts and stories that appear on all local blogs.

What's up with that? It could of been a technical problem but I doubt it. The TL often provides links to local websites in the print and online editions such as the story I highlighted about the Catholic Schools or the Heights fire station bruhaha. I know that reporters on both W-B papers read this blog and other local sites. Maybe they need to amend the terms of service to read that you can't link to bloggers in the comments. Blogs and newspapers are learning how to live with each other. The big blogs react to what is in in the NY Times or Washington Post as we comment on what is in the Times-Leader. Newspapers are not going away as many think but they will change and dealing with the blogosphere is part of the evolution.

The borrowing has to stop

“Every American citizen is forced to tighten his or her belt and to become fiscally more responsible during this period of economic stress – the county should not be excused from such necessity simply because political in-fighting has polarized county officials from acting in a fiscally responsible manner by reviewing financial information which was reasonably available and foreseeable.”- Judge Ann Lokuta


Judge Lokuta told the county government to get its act together. When I read her decision on Luzerne County's request to borrow another $16 million to cover this year's shortfall I felt like somebody finally gets it. I have been complaining the outright lies and fiction that has passed for a county budget for as long as I have been blogging. Every year they expect millions from land sales that never happen and tell us that beefed up tax collection will bring in tens of millions more that they haven't been able to collect in the past. They offer early outs to employees then hire them back through temp agencies and cronies get no bid contracts that violate state law. A partial archive of my bitching about these practices are available here if you're interested. And how many times have they floated a bond for one purpose then spent it on another project. In 2003 $9 million was borrowed to build a new for a new county-owned juvenile detention facility. It was never built because the Bond Brothers (Skrep and Vondy) decided to sign a 20 year $58 million lease with a private company, PA Child Care, that was owned by a business partner of a couple of local judges. Instead of returning the money or holding on to it to deal with a future emergency that eventually came they spent it on other projects. And it has happened over and over again.


Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla is warning of layoffs and has asked all the department heads for help in cutting costs and they are reported to be helpful. We will see about that. The TL reports that our esteemed head of the county Judiciary told her to take a hike.


Luzerne County Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla said she called county Court of Common Pleas President Judge Mark Ciavarella on Thursday to discuss upcoming employee layoffs, and he refused to cooperate.
Petrilla said the judge told her no layoffs will occur in any court branches, and commissioners can’t “touch” court employees. He said he will get a court order and sue commissioners who attempt to institute layoffs in court branches, Petrilla said.
Those branches include domestic relations, probation services, court administration, district justice offices, central court and stenographers.

Tainted witnesses

Luzerne County Judge Ann Lokuta is still fighting her removal from the bench. She asked the state Supreme Court to stop the state from putting her judge seat on the May primary election ballot because she not exhausted her appeals. If her petition is successful it would put the kibosh on some of our wanna be jurists because there would only be 2 seats up for election instead of 3.

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I think she has a good case because Juvie Brother Judge Conahan orchestrated the charges against her and some of the key witnesses were his fellow felon Judge Mark Ciavarella, admitted thief (Conahan's cousin) Bill Sharkey and former and Prothonotary Jill "I was used" Moran. Some of the other witnesses were beholden to the Judges for their jobs or were attorneys that are now under scrutiny for their involvement in the possible fixing of civil cases.

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She claims Conahan went after her because she was cooperating in the federal corruption probe of the Juvie Brothers but couldn't offer evidence to support that claim because it would have jeopardized an ongoing investigation. She also points out that one of the people that sat in judgement of her was Richard Sprague who was a lawyer for Robert Powell who was one of the people paying off the Judges. Powell is a law partner and business partner of Jill Moran. Powell, Moran, Conahan and Ciavarella are also business partners.

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At the very least the Supreme Court should order a new hearing and stay her removal from the bench.

Tangled web

Dunn tied to Powell


Judge Mike Toole the Next to Fall


Like Ann Lokuta said it's a

Incestuous criminal cauldron


Culture of corruption

Experts: Convictions spark more evidence


Where will it end? Many people tell me that they hope every elected official goes to jail. All these guys helped each other out.

Justice for the juvies

WILKES-BARRE – The Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia announced it will file a renewed petition with the state Supreme Court that asks the justices to review the cases of every child who was deemed delinquent and placed in detention by Judge Mark Ciavarella from 2003 to 2008.

The PA Supreme Court denied their last request for relief for kids that were denied counsel and railroaded through the system. Civil rights attorney Barry Dyller may file a class action suit on behalf of the kids and Joe Lach, a Kingston attorney, said he is also considering a similar suit.

Some other private firms are soliciting business even setting up a questionnaire on the company website and running TV ads. The top dog in the 'The People's Law Firm' has been a contributer to various local and federal Democratic politicians and has been a delegate to the national conventions. The state website has chronological limits but these 2 contributions are curious;

8/31/2001 $300.00 to LOKUTA, ANN H COM TO KEEP JUDGE and

10/16/2003 $300.00 CONAHAN, MICHAEL COM TO RETAIN


Other news links in this saga:

JUSTICE FOR JUVENILES?

Conahan resigns from bank board

Powell may eat words about PA Child Care

Election to be open to public

Activist demands justice for juveniles