Free Republic

You almost have to feel sorry for new Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf (D). The man’s just moved into Harrisburg, gotten his voice mail straightened out, starting to get a feel for the morning commute, and then WHAMM! – his (Democratic) Attorney General (Kathleen Kane) is on the verge of being indicted for perjury and his (Democratic) Treasurer (Rob McCord) is resigning, not to mention preparing to plead out on extortion charges:

Pennsylvania politicians seeking increased spending on roads and bridges point to a new report that outlines the unseen costs of the state’s crumbling infrastructure. (snip) The report states that the average driver in Harrisburg will incur $1,646 in annual expenses related to poor road conditions. (snip)Gov. Tom Corbett has proposed uncapping the gas tax as a way to eventually generate $1.8 billion dollars over five years for transportation funding. The proposal would affect the oil-franchise tax, a tariff applied to the wholesale price of gasoline. Currently, the tax only applies to the first $1.25 of the cost of a gallon,...

WILKES-BARRE – In a courthouse still struggling with the fallout from the juvenile justice scandal that cast doubt on thousands of rulings by ex-judge Mark Ciavarella, the fact that Judge Michael Toole continued adjudicating for weeks after signing a plea agreement on corruption charges sits like a ticking time bomb with a potential no one can predict. “I just can’t really comment,” Luzerne County Chief Public Defender Basil Russin said Thursday, “We’ve got to figure out what happens next. It may be nothing, it may be something vital.” “Certainly, any defense attorney can make any motion they like,” District Attorney...

WILKES-BARRE – Months of speculation regarding the fate of Luzerne County Judge Michael Toole ended Wednesday when federal prosecutors announced the jurist has agreed to plead guilty to honest services fraud for improperly influencing a court case, and to tax evasion for an unrelated matter. A complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office says Toole secretly communicated with a plaintiff’s attorney to appoint a person that attorney had sought as a neutral arbitrator in an uninsured motorist case. The neutral arbitrator is part of a three-person panel and is a key vote in deciding how much money to award or...

Two years after the disclosure that Luzerne County officials spent thousands of dollars on overnight trips to New York City, Commissioner Greg Skrepenak still defends the trips he says were supposed to bring New York-style crime fighting to Luzerne County. Skrepenak also denies knowledge that two retired New York City police detectives involved with those trips had business ties to county contracts now being investigated by the FBI and the county solicitor. William Maguire - a retired Wilkes-Barre police captain who has agreed to cooperate with federal investigators and pleaded guilty to taking a bribe - organized the New York...

The concourse is pretty quiet most days at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, but on a spring night in 2006 about 900 people were milling about at a black-tie affair dining on hors d'oeuvres as they took in a $30,000 laser light and music show. Few knew the lavish, invitation-only party cost $176,000, and even if they did, they probably never would have guessed that the tab was picked up, for the most part, by companies that received public contracts for the $80 million airport renovation. The construction contracts and the big party - a night that cost more than an...

In a sweeping order issued Thursday, the state Supreme Court overturned every juvenile court sentence handed down by accused kids-for-cash judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. between 2003 and 2008, clearing the records of thousands of former defendants. Ciavarella, who is awaiting trial on racketeering charges, broke the law by taking kickbacks from the operator of two for-profit juvenile detention centers and ignored court rules by failing to fully inform juveniles who appeared before him of their right to legal counsel, the court concluded in a unanimous nine-page opinion. Read the order The violations were so egregious that even juveniles sentenced...

MARK CIAVARELLA, of Kingston, the former president judge of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas, was charged on Jan. 26 with accepting $2.6 million from private individuals in exchange for rulings that benefited two juvenile detention centers the county utilized. He pleaded guilty, but the plea agreement was rejected by a judge. A grand jury issued a 48-count indictment against him on Sept. 9. He is awaiting trial. MICHAEL CONAHAN, of Wright Township, a former senior judge on the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas, was charged on Jan. 26 with accepting $2.6 million from private individuals in exchange...

Ross Scarantino was "Mr. Pittston Area," a superintendent wholly dedicated to the school district's 3,400 students, according to 80 supporters who pleaded for leniency in letters written to the federal judge who sentenced him on bribery charges Thursday. But Mr. Scarantino's betrayal of that reputation persuaded U.S. District Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie to send him to prison for 13 months - two months longer than the sentence called for under federal sentencing guidelines and court precedent. "What you worked so hard to create was destroyed by your acts," Judge Vanaskie told Mr. Scarantino. "You were 'Mr. Pittston Area' and you...

WILKES-BARRE - A Pittston businessman accused of intimidating a Luzerne County corruption probe witness remains behind bars after a federal magistrate agreed to postpone his Monday bail hearing until Wednesday. Barton J. Weidlich, the first person jailed so far in connection with the corruption investigation, has been in federal custody since turning himself in Oct 1. Prosecutors charged him with threatening a witness to withhold information from a federal grand jury. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Weidlich, a well-connected construction, advertising, real estate and ice cream entrepreneur, appeared in court briefly Monday as his...

In a legal brief filed Tuesday, 20 legal scholars and former judges argued that granting former Luzerne County judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. judicial immunity from civil suits in the kids-for-cash scandal would make a "mockery" of a legal doctrine designed to protect judicial independence and integrity. Ciavarella and Conahan, accused of accepting $2.8 million in kickbacks for sending juveniles to two for-profit detention centers, have claimed judicial immunity in civil-rights suits filed by hundreds of those juveniles in U.S. District Court. The former judges claim they cannot be held liable because the legal doctrine of...

SCRANTON - Federal prosecutors fear former Luzerne County judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. have tried to hide some of their assets to protect them from forfeiture in the racketeering case against them. Prosecutors unsuccessfully sought new bail conditions - including the posting of a $500,000 bond and a requirement that the judges wear electronic monitors - when Conahan and Ciavarella appeared in U.S. District Court to plead not guilty to a 48-count indictment Tuesday. Read the indictment When they pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy in February for allegedly taking $2.8 million in kickbacks, the judges...

Frank Pizzella Jr. on Tuesday became the third Wilkes-Barre Area School Board member and the second sitting board president to be charged with corruption in five months. A federal grand jury handed down an indictment claiming that, in 2004 – before he was on the school board – Pizzella acted as both go-between and facilitator when a school board member got a $5,000 bribe to help hire someone as a teacher. The indictment reads like a mini spy novel without names, other than Pizzella’s. It outlines an alleged “conspiracy” that took place between Jan. 2, 2004, and Dec. 2, 2004,...

HARRISBURG – A federal grand jury filed a 48-count indictment Wednesday against Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, charging the former Luzerne County judges with racketeering, extortion, bribery, money laundering, fraud and tax violations. The indictment, issued by a grand jury in Dauphin County, alleges Conahan and Ciavarella received millions of dollars in illegal payments in connection with improper actions they took to facilitate the construction and operation of the PA and Western PA Child Care juvenile detention centers, according to a press release issued by U.S. Attorney Dennis Pfannenschmidt. In addition to the charges, prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of at...

SCRANTON – Attorney Robert Powell thought he had a great business idea when he approached two Luzerne County judges in 2001 about building a new juvenile detention center. The county-run facility was deteriorating, and judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella quickly agreed to support Powell’s plan for the Pa. Child Care juvenile center in Pittston Township. What Powell didn’t know, federal prosecutors now say, was that Ciavarella and Conahan would demand to be paid for that assistance. They would collect more than $2.6 million over five years before the scheme was uncovered. The depth of the judges’ involvement and the...

HARRISBURG - A federal grand jury has issued an indictment against fomer judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, charging them with racketeering and related charges in connection with alleged improper actions to facilitate the construction and operation of juvenile detention facilities owned by Pa and Western Pa child care. The indictment alleges Conahan and Ciavarella engaged in racketeering, fraud, money laundering, extortion, bribery and federal tax violations and that they received millions of dollars in illegal payments, according to a news release. Along with the criminal charges, the indictment seeks the forfeiture of at least $2,819,500 which is alleged to...

WILKES-BARRE - In the eyes of the federal courts, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan became innocent men Monday afternoon. Just hours after a federal judge refused to reconsider his rejection of the plea agreements that Mr. Ciavarella and Mr. Conahan struck with prosecutors, the two former Luzerne County judges withdrew their guilty pleas to conspiracy and fraud. The move sets the kids-for-cash case back to square one and could lead to a high-stakes corruption trial on charges that the judges conspired to aid two for-profit juvenile detention centers in return for $2.6 million in kickbacks. The plea...

HARRISBURG – U.S. Attorney Martin C. Carlson has resigned his post amid the ongoing Luzerne County corruption probe to assume a position as a U.S. magistrate judge in Harrisburg, a federal judge confirmed Monday. Carlson has served as U.S. attorney since 2007. His departure comes as federal investigators continue to expand their probe, which began with the county judiciary, into local school districts, county government and several other public entities. In an e-mail, Carlson expressed confidence Dennis Pfannenschmidt, who was appointed interim U.S. attorney, will continue to pursue the investigation with the same vigor. “The commitment of the U.S. Attorney’s...

Harrisburg political activist Gene Stilp filed a federal judicial code of conduct complaint yesterday against U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter, alleging that the judge's comments during the sentencing of former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo "undermined the public confidence in the independence and integrity of the court." Last month, Buckwalter sentenced Fumo to 55 months in prison after federal prosecutors urged the judge to impose a term of more than 15 years. Fumo was convicted of charges that he illegally extracted $4 million in benefits, defrauding the Senate by getting workers to do his personal and political work on...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was posted at 4:39 p.m. Read more Luzerne County Judges articles Related Document read the judge's ruling SCRANTON - A federal judge rejected the plea agreement of former Luzerne County Judges Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan. Senior U.S. Judge Edwin Kosik issued an order today critical of comments and conduct of the two men after they entered their guilty pleas earlier this year to serve 87 months in prison. Kosik noted the presentence report for Conahan said he "refused to discuss the motivation behind his conduct, attempted to obstruct and impede justice and failed...