FORBES - WHITE-COLLAR CRIME by Walter Pavlo - February 20, 2011
Former Luzerne County (Pennsylvania) Judge Mark Ciavarella, was found guilty in federal court of racketeering for taking a $1 million kickback from the builder of for-profit prisons for, get this, juveniles. Ciavarella who left the bench two years ago after he and another judge, Michael Conahan, were accused of sentencing youngsters to prisons they had a hand in building. Prosecutors alleged that Conahan, who pleaded guilty to racketeering last year, and Ciavarella received kick-backs from the private company that built and maintained the new youth detention facility that replaced the older county-run center. Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, sent kids to juvenile detention for crimes such as possession of drug paraphernalia, stealing a jar of nutmeg and posting web page spoofs about an assistant principal (3 months of hard time). Some of those sentenced were as young as 10 years old. Ciavarella is still defiant and actually testified in his own defense. He acknowledged to jurors that he in fact did receive money from the builders of the prison but his only mistake was not reporting that money on his TAX RETURNS! What I find hard to believe is not that Ciavarella would say something so ridiculous, but that his defense attorney actually thought that saying something this stupid would actually help the case. Ciavarella is free pending sentencing and people familiar with the case believe he is going to get about 12 years. Since he’s 61, it pretty much eats into his golden years. The new detention center is still taking new junior-inmates. However, none from Luzerne County are being sent to the facility. What is sad is that these centers are needed for troubled youth, when used properly. Now the youth of Luzerne have kids with bad memories of being wrongly punished and current youth, that need to be rehabilitated, are being sent to centers further from their home. The casualties of the crime continue to mount. I feel for the victims whose lives were forever changed by the misguided sentences handed out by judge Ciavarella. This is a sad day for the justice system but it is refreshing to see the right person going to jail this time.
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6 comments:
Yes, even criminals get to play judge. That's the problem.
Jail them all and throw the keys away!
Sadly, how will society accept the potentially aberrant behavior of these youth in the future and the potential associated cost of the true rehabilitation necessary then?
Yes, it's sad and horrible how society accepts the overall corruption, and that squarely points to the lack of required action of our so-called leaders. I hope our "leaders" are watching the global reaction to the citizens being pissed off at a government's corruption and-or the refusal to correct it. Bring on the lawful demonstrations to a corrupt government office or courthouse near you!
Where were the Appellate courts and judges in PA? Holding hands and singing, "Questioning one of us is questioning all of us. How dare those peons demean even one of us. Put on your black robes and cover the vulture feathers sprouting on your skin. Is there honor among common thieves? No. Is there honor among the judges above the common thieves? Yes, judicial honor"
The rot extends from the top of the judicial hierarchy down to roaches who work for them. removing one termite/judge who got caught in the light of day is not fumigating the entire nest.
Justice John K. McGuirk from Goshen New York County Orange, was paid off to help kidnap my children from our legal homestate, for the purposes of child porn and child prostitution.
Despite documented paper trail evidence, the child porn imagines that have appeared online of my child, and the video testimony and writting statement of my other tennage child.
The authorities in the county have continued in the quest to protect these child traffickers who work in the court.
Including the Orange County DA who has blantly, maliciously, and crminally participated in covering up the sexual exloitation of my children.
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