Wired for sound

Transcripts reveal game plan


Kids-for-cash judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan schemed to commit perjury with a co-conspirator who paid them more than $700,000 in kickbacks, unaware that he was secretly recording their conversations, federal prosecutors allege in a brief filed Tuesday.

Here is the transcipt of their conversations with Robert Powell.


* * *


Powell: Here’s the way I see this unfolding. A civil lawsuit, have to make me answer interrogatories and a request for production of documents.


Conahan: Ummmm.


Powell: And then through that look at all the disbursements that were made from Pa Child Care here to me. And Western PA Child Care.


Conahan: So, what are you saying? Powell: It’s where the cash came from.
Conahan: Well, there’s nothing we can do about that. If he files a suit, he files a suit.


Powell: But that puts us in an untenable position.


Conahan: In what way?


Powell: Well, what if they put me under oath?


Conahan: Well, they’re gonna. They already know about [name redacted](the name of an intermediary who delivered cash to Conahan from Powell]. You know that [name redacted]’s been talked to.


Powell: No.


Conahan: Okay. Let me tell you something. If you want to check me, I’m not wearing a wire.


Powell: Neither am I.

(Emphasis Added).

* * *

18

After discussing the fact that the intermediary who gave cash to Conahan met with federal investigators and told them about the cash, the conversation continued:
* * *

Powell: It’s the cash I’m worried about, Mike.

Conahan: Well, I don’t know, Bob. I’m not... told you what my position on that was. It’s not changing.

Powell: No, that’s what I’m gonna say, too. But...I mean I...I don’t.... Conahan: [The Feds have knowledge about] the cash.
Powell: I don’t remember [name redacted] getting those draws. Unless she cashed them.

Conahan: I saw the checks. Powell: Did she cash them?
Conahan: The checks were cashed by [name redacted] (an employee of the
Powell law firm). Powell: [name redacted]. Conahan: [name redacted].
* * *
Conahan: Bob, I’m going to tell you something right now....This is my story.
I’m never changing this story. I leased you that apartment for 15 grand a month for 60 months.

* * *
19

Conahan: Tell you one thing right now. I never lied to you and I never will. I’d never do anything to hurt you but I never got the cash from anybody. That’s the story. And you better stick to it.

Powell: I’ll stick to it.

* * *
Conahan: Bobby, if there’s anything coming out of 40 Degrees North (a company in which Powell had an ownership interest) or PA Child Care . Cash, you just gotta say it didn’t come to me. [Emphasis added].

Powell: Alright.

Conahan: When this is all done, whatever we have to sit down to work it out or help each other, we’ll do it.

(Emphasis Added).

In a conversation on July 2, 2008, Powell, Conahan and Civarella once again discussed concern over what an intermediary would tell investigators about cash payments made to the judges.
* * *

Powell: I don’t know if it means anything or not, but I can see [name
redacted] sticking to her story, Mike, with the cash. She frightens the shit out of me. She’s going to say she delivered cash.

Ciavarella: Well, whatever she says, she says. [I] can’t stop her from saying it. I
just know what I know.

* * *
20

Powell: Greg [Zapalla] has a team up there [at PA Child Care] auditing the books, to see what payments were made out of PA Child Care, Western PA Child Care. I think we’re getting sued.

Ciavarella: [We] can’t stop him from doing it. I mean, assholes who does it. I mean the bottom line is none of the money came out of him...It was all out of Mericle’s [unintelligible] gig. So he can sue us all he wants. He didn’t pay the finder’s fee. Mericle paid it.

Conahan: If Rob Mericle had never gone to him, we wouldn’t have this problem. It would never have come up.

Powell: And if I wouldn’t have given [name redacted] that fucking cash to deliver.

Conahan: You know....

Powell: She’s the weak link. That’s why she’s not here tonight. I don’t even think she’s here. Like she’s hiding somewhere.

* * *
Powell: Well, where the rubber meets the road is where [Zapalla] is gonna say that he wants to see the draws from PA Child Care, and then he’s going to want access to the law firm books because that’s where I got the cash out of, from the law firm.

Conahan: Mmm Hmm.

Powell: I don’t have to give him that. But I think that’s what part of the suit’s going to be is for him to get access to see the payments from PA Child Care to the law firm turned into cash, to you guys.

Conahan: Mmm Hmm.

Powell: ‘Cause right now, he has no right to them, to the law firm books. Ciavarella: Was PA Child Care paying legal fees to the firm?
21

Powell: No. I had no other way to get the money out. I didn’t want to take it directly from PA Child Care.

Ciavarella: Well, how did you justify the fees into the firm? Powell: Draw. I took it as a draw.
Conahan: But you’re allowed to do that.

Powell: But what his fear is about that I never told him, for obvious reasons. I
wasn’t going to tell him I was taking the draw.

Conahan: The problem [name redacted] has is she never gave me anything. So there wasn’t anything given to her. She has it. Or someone has it.

* * *

Ciavarella: ...I was the one who directed [Mericle] where to send that money
and I was the one who gave him the instructions as to where to send it.

* * *
Powell: Well, [Mericle’s] grand jury testimony is that I was the grand orchestrator of everything.
Ciavarella: Well I guarantee you, Bobby Powell, that will not be the testimony comes out of my mouth because I’m gonna tell that fucking grand jury exactly how that deal came down. You had nothing to do with He had nothing to do with it. I had nothing to do with it, other than
Rob Mericle coming to me and saying want to do this for you. That’s how that deal came down.

* * *
Conahan: [Mericle] knew that we [Conahan and Ciavarella] owned Pinnacle.
He knew who owned Beverage Marketing.

22

Powell: Well, if that’s the case, then our only problem is the cash and [name redacted].

Conahan: Well....

Powell: ...and if somebody sees [redacted] at the [person’s workplace redacted], I wish you would get word to me somehow, some way,
‘cause I call up there and there’s no answer. Conahan: We have to fight this Mericle thing....
Ciavarella: You know, I could see [Mericle] testifying, this is the file.

* * *
Powell: We’re both gonna have to stick to that, Mickey, ‘cause [name redacted] is gonna testify.

Conahan: [unintelligible] testify [unintelligible] one box filled with cash. She doesn’t know what’s in the other ones. There’s only one that she knows.

Powell: It’s going to be our word against hers. Conahan: Mark (Ciavarella), do me a favor.
* * *
Conahan: Listen, you paid me rent for my condo. You didn’t pay me rent for my condo to shut the juvenile detention center down or fix cases. This thing with Mericle, this Mericle, I gotta fight it. And I got no
boxes from [name redacted]. Nobody gave boxes to [name redacted]. If somebody gave boxes to [name redacted], she has them....Mark doesn’t know [unintelligible] [name redacted]. I talked to you. Because I wanted to keep him outta this.

Powell: He doesn’t know about the cash? Conahan: No.

23

Powell: Alright. I’m glad you told me. Conahan: No. That’s not what I was saying. Powell: I’m sorry.
Conahan: That’s OK. So [unintelligible] comes down I’m gonna say forget whatever you just heard. The only thing Mark knows, Mark does not know the rent you and I negotiated for the condo. It’s $15,000 for 60 months. $900,000. That’s what you were supposed to pay.
Whenever you paid, you paid. You left. So, the only thing Mark knows is the conversation with Mericle. He doesn’t know about the rent to the cond. He knows that you paid me rent. He doesn’t know about any boxes. That’s why he’s our most credible witness.

Powell: I understand.

Conahan: So, as long as you stick to your story, the condo rent, okay. And he solves this problem. If [name redacted] got boxes, she kept them.

Powell: Alright, then I won’t ever say anything to him again.

Conahan: And the only one that you can testify to is when she says that she saw you put cash in one box. Her first story was she didn’t. Then she flipped and she says she did. Okay. But I’m gonna tell you, she didn’t give me any boxes. And if you gave her stuff to give to me,
the [name redacted], it was documents. Maps. It was anything. And you did things by courier. You never gave them to her.

Powell: That’s our story. We’ll stick to it.

Conahan: Yeah. She’s wearing a wire. That’s why she didn’t show up today.

(Emphasis Added).

* * *

24

Marino testifies

SCRANTON – Luzerne County Judge Michael Toole’s tipstaff Tom Marino testified for more than 1 hour Tuesday before a federal grand jury investigating corruption within the county.

He was issued a subpoena on June 1. The Feds are looking into money Participant 1 Robert Powell paid to Toole. Zen says it was $82,000 for his services for refusing to rule on subpoenas issued by then Controller Steve Flood when he was looking into the county contract with PA Child Care in 2005 then owned by Powell and Greg Zappala. Toole could have ruled against the subpoenas, but that would have given Flood a chance to appeal to get the subpoenas enforced. Toole was also a guest at the Juvie Brothers Florida condo least once and also ruled on a dispute involving Robert Powell's yacht.


Prosecutors say Powell knew that Conahan and Ciavarella were committing a crime when they accepted the kickbacks from Powell and local developer Participant 2 Robert Mericle, but failed to report it. He also helped the judges disguise the source of the money he and Mericle paid.

Bad company

Luzerne County Judge Michael Toole's Tipstaff Tom Marino got a subpoena on Monday.


Participant 1 in the Juvie Brothers scandal, Robert Powell, payed some cash to Toole for unspecified reasons according to Terrie Morgan-Besecker in the TL. Why would Powell possibly give money to Toole ? Let me get out my crayon.

Toole refused to rule on subpoenas issued by then Controller Steve Flood when he was looking into the county contract with PA Child Care in 2005 then owned by Powell. Toole could have ruled against the subpoenas, but that would have given Flood a chance to appeal to get the subpoenas enforced. Toole was also a guest at the Juvie Brothers Florida condo least once and also ruled on a dispute involving Robert Powell's yacht.

Or it could have been for something else.

In other news the Juvie Brothers are still free to travel back and forth to the condo in Florida and may not be sentenced for some time.

Sentencing date for former judges delayed

Someone once said that justice delayed is justice denied.

Two other local crooks plead guilty this week.

Height, Scarantino to enter guilty pleas

Jill Moran out

Times Leader File photo / Clark Van Orden

As predicted on this blog a few weeks ago Luzerne County Prothonotary Jill Moran has resigned. Her business ties to the the Juvie Brothers, Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, and law partner of Participant 1, Robert Powell has made her position untenable. The way that this has been playing out an indictment can't be far off.

She falsified a tax lien by changing Powell's name to John Doe. At the time I wasn't sure if that was a crime but a few lawyer friends say it is and the Feds seem to agree. During the last election Carolee Medico Olenginski accused her of not spending much time in the office and it was revealed that she had a clerk, Lana Bidwell, sign her name to official documents when she wasn't around proving Carolee's point.

She was a key attorney for Robert Powell's and Greg Zappala's PA Child Care facility that is the center of the corruption charges against the Judges and is listed as the head of W-Cat Inc., a firm that is building The Sanctuary, a town house development in Wright Township with Conahan, Ciavarella, Powell and others that recently went belly up.

I wonder if she got a chance to stay at the Florida condo and take a ride on the yacht, Reel Justice.

Juvie Brothers update

SCRANTON – Four months after publicly portraying himself as the victim of extortion by two rogue judges, attorney Robert Powell has admitted he was a willing participant in helping the disgraced jurists conceal part of their illegal activities....

When it was first revealed that Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were taking bribes the question was who was paying them. The indictments identified them as Participant 1 and 2. Participant 1 was later identified as Robert Powell co-owner along with Greg Zappalla of PA Child Care in Pittston Twp. Many of the kids that got railroaded through Ciavarella's courtroom ended up there or their other venture Western PA Child Care. Participant 2 is multi-party Bob Mericle who's company built the Pittston Twp. facility. We await the headlines about the biggest real estate tax payer (minus KOZ's, LERTA's, etc) in Luzerne County in the near future.

Remember that Powell, Zappala and former Hazleton Mayor Michael Marsicano wanted to use taxpayer money to buy the land from them to build a Fantasy Airport near Hazleton. State House Majority Leader Todd Eachus and Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak were hot for the idea.

The US Attorney has charged Powell with conspiracy to commit tax evasion and part of his plea agreement includes forfeiting his yacht and private jet.

When he gets out of jail in 5 1/2 years he will need a new ride. This might get him around:

Robert Powell gets 18 months in jail

TL: Update: Powell sentenced to 18 months, regrets not stopping "travesty."

CV: 18-month sentence for Powell, kids-for-cash financier and star witness

A YEAR & A HALF from the Yonk


The point I have been making since this broke is the Judges were corrupt but somebody was paying them off. As far as I'm concerned Powell and Robert Mericle are just as guilty as the Juvie Bothers Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella and they deserve the same punishment. Michael Toole also went down because of his association with Powell.

Some kid that sold a bag of pot to a friend that turned out to be "confidential informant" gets more time.

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

"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!”

About that finder's fee

SCRANTON - Prominent area developer Robert Mericle has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge of failing to report a felony, Acting U.S. Attorney Dennis Pfannenschmidt announced today.

.

The agreement, which was signed July 31, calls for Mericle to plead guilty to one count of failing to report a felony. Prosecutors say Mericle failed to disclose his knowledge that former judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella had accepted kickbacks in exchange for rulings that benefited the PA and Western PA juvenile detention centers that Mericle built.

.

The centers were owned at the time by Gregory Zappala and Robert Powell. Powell has also entered a guilty plea in the case. Included in the plea agreement Mericle has also agreed to pay $2.15 million for funding programs that will benefit "the health, safety and general welfare of children of Luzerne County." I guess you can try to buy your way out of anything.

.

Alternate headlines from Big Dan

.

"IT'S MIRACLE! MERICLE FINALLY CHARGED!"

.

IT'S A MERICLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!""MERICLES DO HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!"

.

McGruff has

.

Robert Mericle- No Miracle Could Avoid Pleading Guilty

.

And my favorite

.

Pfahrvergnügen from Pfannenschmidt

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.

.

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.

.

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.

.

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

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.
.

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.

Jill Moran resigns

This is Luzerne County Prothonotary Jill Moran last day on the job. . The TL reports she spent yesterday barracaded in her office saying goodbye to colleagues. It may be the most time she spent in the office over the last 7 years because she had other things to do like building houses in Mountaintop that never actually got built.

.

She is a law partner of PA Child Care owner Robert Powell who has been paying off the Juvie Brothers to send kids to his private for profit juvenile jail in Pittston Twp. Powell, Moran, Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan are investers/partners in W-Cat Inc . that has defaulted on loans to a bank run by Conahan and Louis DeNaples. There are other investors in the project that are not part of any of illegal activities and they got screwed. She protected Powell by altering an IRS tax lien in the county database to read John Doe. I could go on and on.

.

Complaint and Compromise

.

She claims that some people allegedly attempted, without Moran’s "full knowledge and consent, to use Moran to facilitate frauds.”

.

I don't buy it.

.

Deputy Prothonotary Elizabeth Decker will run the office until the winner of the election takes office next January. 2 Republicans and 3 Democrats are running to replace her.

Powell says he was sqeezed

The lawyers for PA Child Care owner Robert Powell, who has been identified as Participant Number 1 in the bribery case of Luzerne County Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, contends that that he was a “victim of their demands for payment.”


From what I understand Powell has been singing to the Feds and even wore a wire to help bring them down. It sounds like like a classic case of someone getting pinched and turning informer.

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?

No more borrowing

County may face cuts and tax hikes

I have some mixed emotions about Luzerne County Commissioner Chair Maryanne Petrilla.

On the one hand I will always hold a grudge because she was recuited to take out the most effective Controller we ever had, Steve Flood, who sounded the alarm bells about the 20 year/$58 million lease with PA Child Care. The place was owned at the time by Greg Zappala and Robert Powell. Since then we have learned that Powell and multi party developer Robert Mericle were paying off the Juvie Brothers to put kids in their private prison.


On the other hand she has been upfront about limits of borrowing to balance the county budget since she became a commissioner and teamed up with Republican Commissioner Steve Urban to restore some sanity. The county is tapped out so borrowing more money for a new prison or anything else is out of the question. There is only so much you can cut so we can expect a big tax increase next year on top of the reassessment that doubled or tripled taxes on some people.

“Raising taxes is a very tough decision that one has to take very, very seriously. But at the same time, I said many times that I can’t make decisions today and tomorrow based on hoping to get re-elected in four years."-Maryanne Petrilla

No honor among thieves

Former Judge Mark Ciavarella denies that he extorted payments from PA Child Care owner Robert Powell calling him a liar. Wired for sound attorney Powell says he did exactly that and claims to be a victim of the Judges greed. The part that I found to be funny was when Ciavella contended that Robert Mericle just walked into his office one day and offered to give him almost a million dollars as a "finders fee." I wish I had such generous friends.

Luzerne County scandals

No indictments yet but the buzz says it's just a matter of days. I've lost track of how many investigations are going on in the county.


The latest one is about the theft of funds from the treasurer’s office that DA Jackie Mo handed off to the FBI. I'm sure if someone gets caught with their fingers in the till they will get house arrest just like Robert Pritchard and Carl Salitis.


The more serious probe centers on the tangled web involving Judges Mike Conahan and Mark Ciavarella with PA Child Care owners Robert Powell and would be Hazleton Airport builder Greg Zapalla. Prothonotary Jill Moran also has ties to a company, W-Cat Inc., that they all have money invested in.


Then there is the Debit Card scandal that the Secret Service is investigating and the no bid contracts at the prison that some secret police outfit is supposed to be looking into.


I need a scorecard to keep track of all of this. Will someone help me out?


Luzerne County's greatest hits, so far:

Debit Cards

Sam Hyder

Luzerne County Prison

Bonds

No Bid Contracts

The Latest Outrage in Luzerne County



Did I miss something?


HOME RULE

Juvie Brothers update

Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella gave an interview to the UK newspaper the Guardian and claimed the bribes he got from PA Child Care owner Robert Powell and builder of the facility Robert Mericle were "finder's fee" from the private company for help in building the detention centre. He denies sending children to custody in return for kickbacks. "Cash for kids? It never happened. People have jumped to conclusions - I didn't do any of these things." That's a creative use of language. It sounds like a meter was keeping track of the kids he locked up and putting a cash value on them. Not to mention that Judges are not supposed to be in the business of helping anyone build anything financed by the taxpayers.



This thing is calling into question many cases that Ciavarella or Judge Michael Conahan have ever presided over. A reasonable question to ask if they were taking bribes to lock up kids what else was for sale? Conahan vacated a jury verdict in the case of a Tunkhannock physician that found in his favor and awarded the plaintiff $1 million. I didn't know that a Judge could reverse a jury. The Citizen Voice is contending that a $3.5 million defamation verdict issued by suspended Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. in June 2006 against The Scranton Times L.P., a related company called The Times Partner and former Citizens’ Voice reporter Edward Lewis was fixed. I have other examples but you get the idea.

No pension for you

Two ex-judges denied pensions


Former Luzerne County judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan are not entitled to their pensions and could be liable to reimburse the state $4.3 million for higher juvenile placement costs it says are tied to the kickback scheme the jurists engaged in, the State Employees’ Retirement System has determined.


Conahan has been collecting 8 grand a month since he retired and Ciavarella was slated to get over $5K but has not received any payments. Ciavarella also tried to cash out his contributions after he was charged but the state pension fund refused his request. Conahan's timing was better and got a lump sum payment of $302,777.09.

.


And the assertion of Robert Powell that he was strong armed into paying the Juvie Brothers all that money in bribes is laughable. They also forced him to invest in the real estate deal with them and Jill Moran in Mountaintop. The fact that Powell was wearing a wire after the Feds pinched him hit the papers this week and I'm sure that my faithful readers will remember that was first reported on this blog in January.


.

The headlines about Bob Mericle and Judge Toole should be coming soon.

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.