Former county judge, Mark Ciavarella Jr. was jailed for his part in a ‘kids for cash’ scheme in which he and fellow judge Michael Conahan accepted $2.8 million in kickbacks from the owner and builder of two privately-run juvenile detention facilities. In exchange, the judges agreed to close down the Luzerne County’s own juvenile detention centre, which would otherwise have competed with the new, privately-run facilities. In addition they guaranteed that juvenile offenders from their court would be directed to the privately-run facilities. Conahan, pleaded guilty last year to a single count of racketeering and is awaiting sentencing.
In his comments to the court, Ciavarella apologised to the community and to the children whose cases he had adjudicated. “I blame no one but myself for what happened,” he told reporters. But the former judge rejected claims that he engaged in a “kids for cash” racketeering scheme. He said prosecutors used the claim to sabotage his reputation prior to his trial. “Those three words made me the personification of evil,” he told the court, according to the Associated Press. “They made me toxic and caused a public uproar the likes of which this community has never seen.”
Ciavarella had a reputation as a no-nonsense judge who would not hesitate to sentence young, first-time offenders to juvenile detention. He also gained a reputation as a judge prone to cut constitutional corners. An investigation revealed that half of the children who appeared in his courtroom were not represented by a lawyer and were never advised of their right to counsel. Of those unrepresented children, up to 60 percent were ordered by Ciavarella to serve time at a detention facility. What was not known, prior to the federal investigation, was that Ciavarella and Conahan were receiving secret payments from the private detention centres, the owners of which stood to profit from the higher number of juveniles they were housing.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned some 4,000 convictions issued by the former Luzerne County judge between 2003 and 2008, claiming he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles – including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.
One such case involved AA (name withheld), a 16-year-old who was arrested for gesturing with her middle finger at a police officer who had been called during a custody dispute involving her parents and her sister. According to a 2010 report of the Interbranch Pennsylvania Commission on Juvenile Justice, AA was an honour roll student, a Girl Scout, and YMCA member, who attended bible school. She had no prior arrest record and had never even been in detention in school.
AA was sent to Ciavarella’s court, and was told she wouldn’t need a lawyer since it was a minor issue. After examining the paperwork, Ciavarella accused AA of having no respect for authority. She later told the investigating commission that Ciavarella never gave her an opportunity to speak at the hearing. She was led out of the courtroom in shackles and held in juvenile detention for six months.
A jury found Ciavarella guilty of engaging in a pattern of racketeering and participating in a racketeering conspiracy through his receipt and transfer of $997,600 from individuals associated with the juvenile detention centres. He was also convicted of failing to record the secret payments on judicial financial disclosure forms from 2004 to 2007, and for filing false tax returns for those same years. In addition, the jury found him guilty of engaging in a money-laundering conspiracy to conceal the payments. Following his conviction earlier this year, lawyers for Ciavarella Jnr, 61, had asked for a “reasonable” sentence, claiming that he had already been punished enough. Prosecutors had requested a life sentence.
