Posted on 09/09/2009 6:06:09 PM PDT by Born Conservative
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 be the proceedes of the charged criminal activity.
Ciavarella, of Kingston, the former president judge of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas, and Conahan, of Wright Township, a former senior judge on the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas, were accused on Jan. 26 of accepting $2.6 million in kickbacks from private individuals in exchange for rulings that benefited the PA Child Care juvenile detention center in Pittston Township. They pleaded guilty, but the plea agreement was recently rejected by Senior U.S. District Judge Edwin Kosik.
Kosik cited the former judges' behavior as the key reason for a July 31 ruling that rejected a plea agreement that called for the men to serve 87 months in prison on corruption charges. They originally pleaded guilty on Feb. 12 to charges of depriving the public of their honest services and tax evasion. The plea was conditioned on Kosik's acceptance following the completion of the pre-sentence report.
In his order, Kosik said he did not feel either defendant had adequately demonstrated they accepted responsibility for their conduct.
...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...But our top story, Republican California Assemblyman Mike Duvall talked about his sex life on an open mike...
ping
Thanks for the ping... these stories make me crazy because they usually forget to mention these creeps’ political affiliation.
“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. BOTH ARE DEMOCRATS.”
It makes me sick too. You'd never know to which party Vince Fumo belongs from reading the Inquirer.
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