Since Kay is busy organizing in Ohio (Ohio residents, check that post!), she graciously gave me permission to post another update on the Pennsylvania judge caught using hapless local teenagers as a profit center:
SCRANTON, Pa. – A former juvenile court judge was convicted Friday of racketeering in a case that accused him of sending youth offenders to for-profit detention centers in exchange for millions of dollars in illicit payments from the builder and owner of the lockups.
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Luzerne County ex-Judge Mark Ciavarella, 61, left the bench in disgrace two years ago after prosecutors charged him with engineering one of the biggest courtroom frauds in U.S. history by using juvenile delinquents as pawns in a plot to get rich…
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Ciavarella was expressionless as the verdicts were being read. Prosecutors called him a flight risk and asked that he be held pending sentencing, but he was allowed to remain free. He is likely to get a prison sentence of more than 12 years, according to prosecutors…
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The judge, known for his harsh and autocratic courtroom demeanor, filled the beds of the private lockups with children as young as 10. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed thousands of juvenile convictions issued by Ciavarella, saying he ran his courtroom with “complete disregard for the constitutional rights of the juveniles,” including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.
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His rough treatment of youths — whom he often had handcuffed and shackled — did not figure into his corruption trial, which focused on the payments from Mericle and Powell. But prosecutor Gordon Zubrod told jurors in his closing argument that Luzerne County’s juveniles were indeed victimized by Ciavarella — that he had used them as “pawns in a scheme to enrich himself.”…
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Taking the stand in his own defense, the former judge acknowledged to jurors that he failed to report the payments on his tax returns and hid them from the public, but he denied any plot to take kickbacks or extort money. Ciavarella told jurors that he thought he was legally entitled to Mericle’s money, calling it a “finder’s fee” for introducing Mericle to Powell…
Read the article, and if you missed Kay’s original post, her commentary is important. I should probably point out that, despite all odds, the kids exploited by Ciavarella and his co-conspirators were apparently white, genuine Heartland Americans(tm) who turned out to be just as vulnerable as any off-color possibly-non-citizen denizens of the hated urban enclaves. The antics of Ciavarella and his chums would make a great Carl Hiaasen novel, if only there were alligators in Pennsylvania to help dispose of the evidence.
Updated Update: Judge Ciavarella Found GuiltyPost + Comments (47)