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UPDATE: JUDGE FACES TWENTY YEARS IN KIDS FOR CASH DEAL
Posted on July 27th, 2010
zshapiro
Two Pennsylvania juvenile court judges were indicted for accepting kickbacks in exchange for sending children to a private jail.
Often former Luzerne County (Wilkes Barre) Court of Common Plea Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan sentenced juveniles to the private jails without appointing lawyers for them on minor offenses. Among the charges for which children were placed in the private jail were for stealing loose change from cars, writing prank notes, possession of drug paraphernalia and mocking an assistant principal on myspace.com.
The judges received 2.8 million dollars in kickbacks from the private jails.
Last year Ciavarella and Conahan plead guilty to a sweetheart deal that would have given them 87 month sentences but the pleas were rejected as being too soft by United States District Court Judge Edward M. Kosik and the pleas were withdrawn.
Conahan plead guilty last week to one count of a racketeering corruption charge. There is no plea agreement and Judge Kosik could sentence him up to the maximum of twenty years. Ciavarella also withdrew his plea after Judge Kosik refused the 87 month deal and he is facing trial.
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