Pa. judges accused of jailing kids for cash

AP via Yahoo ^ | 2/11/09 | MICHAEL RUBINKAM and MARYCLAIRE DALE

[mgstarr]

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses.

The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench.

In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.

"I've never encountered, and I don't think that we will in our lifetimes, a case where literally thousands of kids' lives were just tossed aside in order for a couple of judges to make some money," said Marsha Levick, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which is representing hundreds of youths sentenced in Wilkes-Barre.

Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC. The judges were charged on Jan. 26 and removed from the bench by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shortly afterward.

No company officials have been charged, but the investigation is still going on.

The high court, meanwhile, is looking into whether hundreds or even thousands of sentences should be overturned and the juveniles' records expunged.

Among the offenders were teenagers who were locked up for months for stealing loose change from cars, writing a prank note and possessing drug paraphernalia. Many had never been in trouble before. Some were imprisoned even after probation officers recommended against it.

Many appeared without lawyers, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1967 ruling that children have a constitutional right to counsel.

[grey_whiskers]

Firing squad.

[doomtrooper99]

Paris Hilton went to jail for 45(23) days for being foolish.
Michael Niffong, who tried to sent couple innocent kids to prison for life got only one day for contempt.

Martha Stewart went to jail for talking without her lawyers present.
Gangsters who robbed this country for TRILLIONS and their enablers have been rewarded and re-elected.

Welsey Snipes is in prison for tax evasion.
Tom “the little bitch” Daschle cheated IRS for $100k and nothing will be done to him.

Now I know what drove the mob during the French and Bolshevick revolutions.

:-(

[texan75010]

I hope these guys do go to prison and get raped on a daily basis. I hope they can't take a dump without feeling the burn of a badly infected colon. I hope their mouths become a receptacle for many a lonely inmate. Lastly, I hope they are beaten to death the night before they are to be released. I am only extending the same amount of mercy that they did.

Judges in general are power wielding pricks. I have sat in too many jury boxes to think otherwise. As for lawyers, if they couldn't lie, they couldn't do their job.

Not all jurors are idiots, OK, maybe the OJ jurors were, but there are some folks out there who look for justice in an extremely corrupt justice system. The judges don't care, the lawyers don't care. I HATE JURY DUTY!!!!

[Starfleet Command]

The land of John Murtha and Arlen Specter. I'm shocked.

I think the UN needs to start precision strikes on Penn. like they did Serbia. Take out the courthouses and the congressional offices. Decapitate the snake, as it were.

[Starfleet Command]

Posts 19 and 39 - Brilliant sir. Brilliant.

Kudos.

[dr_who]

Major lawsuit against the state methinks.

[LuxMaker]

Firing squad.

Yes, as true traitors to the very foundation of this country.

[malkee]

I think the UN needs to start precision strikes on Penn. like they did Serbia. Take out the courthouses and the congressional offices. Decapitate the snake, as it were.

Hey, I live here. What do you think it's like to live in the land of Arlen? I did get an email back from him when I wrote to complain about the stimulus. Woo-hoo. Guess that's a specialty for constituents.

[malkee]

Just thought I'd check the Post-Gazette to see what I could find on this story, and lo, I discovered this. Take particular note of this graf:

"No charges have been filed against Mr. Zappala or his former business partner, attorney Robert J. Powell. Mr. Zappala is the brother of Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. and son of former state Supreme Court Justice Stephen A. Zappala Sr."

[malkee]

FYI — Pittsburgh is the county seat of Allegheny County.

[DemforBush]

I *love* that movie!

[dennisw]

Were these judges—— GASP——— Democrats????

[driftdiver]

You have all the rights you want if you have a good lawyer and lots of money. No lawyer or money? Then you have no rights.

[driftdiver]

As a judge you should realize that the public has no faith in your profession. There is no justice, there are no rights if you don’t have money.

[Starfleet Command]

Hey, I live here.

Move. I don't know how much longer I can hold off the UN peace strikes...

[Starfleet Command]

"No charges have been filed against Mr. Zappala or his former business partner, attorney Robert J. Powell. Mr. Zappala is the brother of Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. and son of former state Supreme Court Justice Stephen A. Zappala Sr."

Sicily of the Tri-State area...

[malkee]

On the local TV news tonight: “Mr. Zappala was not charged as he was unaware of any illegal activity.”

[Starfleet Command]

On the local TV news tonight: “Mr. Zappala was not charged as he was unaware of any illegal activity.”

Wow, this is great news! First, we find out that "not knowing" is a a bullet-proof IRS defense aka the Rangel Rule, Geitner, et al. Now, we find out it works for felony conspiracy too!

The Zappala Zero Knowledge Defense!

[SmallGovRepub]

In most cases I'd rather have private businesses run things than the government, but not prisons, not for juveniles and not for adults. We're seeing more and more of this and it's a mistake. These are for profit businesses that are going to try to increase their business, sometimes doing things as evil as this. Private prisons have grown into a multi-billion dollar industry and they constantly lobby for tougher laws so that more people will be locked up. In the juvenile court system there is every type of facility lobbying for government money. I've never heard of them paying kickbacks like this but they sure go out of their way to get probation officers and judges to send kids to their expensive drug treatment facilities and penal facilities and so on. I'd see a lot of this when I used to work as a public defender and had to handle everything, including juvenile court. They come and do their dog and pony shows and hand out all these glossy brochures and make their facilities sound so awesome, and then we'll send some of our kids to these facilities we'll find out about horrible conditions, abuse, sexual assaults. A lot of these places are just in it to make as much government money as possible. I'd see this especially with these drug treatment facilities because they would actually evaluate the kids and come in and testify and there were places that basically said every kid needed inpatient treatment as long as they had beds open, but when the beds were full any kid sent for evaluation needed their expensive outpatient treatment, never inpatient treatment at another facility. It was just a racket, the whole thing. The programs sucked. All they wanted was as much government money as possible. The welfare of these kids mattered not.

[Centurion2000]

I’m a judge and I’m sickened by this. Please don’t paint us all with the same brush. I actually care about the youth who come before me.

What type? Criminal, federal, family court?

Does it bother you than a significant portion of the population is losing all faith in the legal system as a venue for justice?