Posted on 02/24/2011 1:35:33 PM PST by Born Conservative
Sandy Fonzo, the aggrieved and grieving mother who confronted Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. outside a federal courthouse last week after his conviction in the kids-for-cash case, blames her son's suicide on the former Luzerne County Juvenile Court judge, who jailed her son at 17.
Her son's father, Edward R. Kenzakoski Jr., at least in part, blames himself.
"I basically framed him with my buddies," Kenzakoski said Tuesday.
Kenzakoski, a 44-year-old Bear Creek Township man employed in construction, said he planted drug paraphernalia in his son's truck about seven years ago, leading to his initial appearance in juvenile court. Fonzo alleges her son's assignment to a juvenile camp on the paraphernalia charge started him on a tortured path through the juvenile and adult court systems that culminated in his suicide last June.
Kenzakoski said he had two friends familiar with the justice system who told him an appearance in juvenile court might straighten his son out.
"They helped me out because he was getting in with the wrong crowd. He was out drinking with the other kids," Kenzakoski said of his son, Edward R. Kenzakoski III, who was an accomplished high-school wrestler in the 189-pound weight class as a junior.
Kenzakoski said he feared his son would abandon wrestling in his senior year.
"I wanted him to stop and think about his career," the elder Kenzakoski said. "Hopefully he'd get a scholarship and get out of this town."
Kenzakoski declined to identify the friends who advised him to report to police that there was paraphernalia in the truck.
"They said, "Don't worry, Ciavarella's a good man. He'll just scare him."
But Ciavarella ordered the younger Kenzakoski held for 30 days in the PA Child Care juvenile detention center in Pittston Township. The new for-profit facility had recently replaced an aging county-owned center, which was closed at Ciavarella's urging. Ciavarella was found guilty of racketeering last week for accepting nearly $1 million in illegal payments from the builder of the for-profit facility.
After the stay in PA Child Care, Kenzakoski's son was sent for several months to a wilderness camp near Shamokin, where, his mother alleges, he was mixed in with gang members and juveniles charged with homicide. After his release, the younger Kenzakoski spent time in another juvenile facility and in state prisons on assault charges before fatally shooting himself in June.
His mother furiously confronted Ciavarella on the steps of the William J. Nealon Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Scranton on Friday as Ciavarella and his lawyers told the media Ciavarella had been vindicated by a mixed verdict in his case, arguing there had been no finding of a "cash for kids" conspiracy.
"My son's not here. He's dead," Fonzo screamed, pushing through a crowd of reporters and pointing at Ciavarella. "He ruined my (expletive) life. I'd like him to go to hell and rot forever.
"Do you know what he said in court? 'He has to be held accountable for his own actions.' You need to be. Do you remember me? Do you remember me? Do you remember my son, an all-star wrestler? He's gone. He shot himself in the heart," Fonzo said as U.S. marshals led her across a city street to separate her from Ciavarella.
Fonzo's confrontation with the former judge has attracted national media attention, including an interview Saturday on CNN and one to be broadcast this morning on NBC's "Today" show.
Kenzakoski said he supports Fonzo's efforts to bring attention to their son's case.
"I'm glad she's doing it. Maybe that judge will get what he deserves," he said.
Efforts to reach Fonzo, of Wilkes-Barre, via telephone, e-mail and in person were not successful Tuesday.
Kenzakoski said he and Fonzo ended their relationship shortly after their son was born, but as a teenager, his son often stayed in a cabin on his property.
"He came to my house all the time. He used to like to hunt or fish or go on the quads," Kenzakoski said.
The younger Kenzakoski missed his senior year at Coughlin High School while he was in the juvenile system on the paraphernalia offense and was released in 2004.
In July 2004, five days before his 18th birthday, he was accused of drunkenly beating another man with his fists and a rock in a wooded area of Plains Township. He fled Luzerne County to avoid being placed back in the juvenile system on a probation violation, his parents said.
The younger Kenzakoski eventually returned to the county, but was only arrested on the assault charge when he was involved in a vehicle accident early in 2006, his parents said. Ciavarella revoked his juvenile probation and sent him to the Western PA Child Care juvenile detention center in Butler County, another facility involved in the kids-for-cash case.
The younger Kenzakoski was subsequently released from juvenile detention in March 2006 and placed in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program on a charge of simple assault in September 2006. Now 20 years old, he was placed on adult probation for one year and ordered to continue working at a construction job, pay $160 in restitution and a $600 assessment and perform 25 hours of community service.
Two months later, he allegedly attacked three people at a party in a wooded area of Plains Township. Two of the victims required facial surgery, according to a police affidavit filed when he was arrested in December 2006. Witnesses said the assault was unprovoked.
"Three guys jumped him and he went to jail," Kenzakoski said. "He had to beat them up twice to leave. That's what got him in trouble. My son was a good kid. Everybody picks a fight with the big guy."
The younger Kenzakoski's participation in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program on the 2004 assault charge was revoked because of the arrest. He was tried and acquitted in the 2004 case in January 2008.
In March 2008, a jury in county court found him guilty of aggravated assault, simple assault and reckless endangerment in the 2006 assault. Three months later, he was sentenced to 38 to 76 months in state prison.
The following November, Luzerne County Judge Chester B. Muroski reduced his minimum sentence to 36 months, making him eligible to enter a State Department of Corrections boot camp in Clearfield County. Released on parole after successfully completing the six-month boot camp program, he committed suicide in little less than a month.
In an interview last Friday, Fonzo said her son came out of the adult prison system angry, bitter and depressed.
The elder Kenzakoski said he was not sure why his son killed himself.
"One of his best friends told me he thought of it every day after he went to the juvenile center," Kenzakoski said.
The younger Kenzakoski is one of thousands of former defendants who had their juvenile records cleared in 2009 by the state Supreme Court, which found Ciavarella detained juveniles on minor charges and failed to fully inform them of their right to counsel.
He is listed as a plaintiff in one of the civil-rights actions filed by hundreds of people who claim they were illegally detained by the former judge.
After Fonzo confronted Ciavarella on Friday, he said he did not recognize her or know the details of her son's case.
Ciavarella's attorney Al Flora Jr. said Tuesday that he had been contacted by the "Today" show to participate in this morning's report, but declined. He said he was aware of the criminal charges the younger Kenzakoski faced in adult court, but he couldn't really draw any conclusions about his suicide without access to non-public juvenile court records, pre-sentence reports and psychological evaluations.
"What I'm gathering is that what this woman is saying and what actually happened are two different things," Flora said. "Everybody's just taking this mother's story at face value without doing any type of investigation into the background of this whole thing."
Ping
>>Kenzakoski said he had two friends familiar with the justice system who told him an appearance in juvenile court might straighten his son out. <<
Never, EVER get the authorities involved in helping you “parent” your children. I have an acquaintance that called the cops on her son to “scare him”. He spent a year in prison.
Horrible. He took some really bad advice, but the judge turned a foolish mistake into a suicide. I can’t imagine how this guy and his wife must feel.
Like being thrown into a tree shredder will teach you not to play with knives.
>>Kenzakoski said he had two friends familiar with the justice system who told him an appearance in juvenile court might straighten his son out. <<
Never, EVER get the authorities involved in helping you “parent” your children. I have an acquaintance that called the cops on her son to “scare him”. He spent a year in prison.
His crime? He broke a window at a high school. Seriously.
At least the kid is finally away from all these screwed up people.
Bump for later.
How horrible, how tragic. I’m not easily moved by stories of hardship and loss, but this one has me praying and trying not to weep at the keyboard. Who knows what dreadful things happened to him in those juvie camps? Rape, beatings? And the injustice of knowing that he was sentenced to this torture when he was completely innocent would have broken an adult, much less a young boy. The grief is indescribable. May God comfort him.
As long as your intentions were good.
</sarcasm>
LE doesnt care about rehabilitating. They care about the headlines.
Let’s sort a few things out.
FATHER plants drugs on son, believing the juvenile judge will just “scare” the son. Judge puts kid in jail for 30 days, probably because the judge gets kickbacks, and kid later kills himself.
The judge is despicable BUT if I plant drugs on my kid I can hardly blame the judge for the kid’s jailing and suicide.
The initial corruptions here are the FATHER’S crazy manipulations, and whoever promised in advance what the sentence would be. I’m sorry, but the parent doesn’t want to face what he did.
I sure hope he has remorse. I don't believe the 2 are together; the boys mother has a different last name.
Bingo. I guess the dad never gets charged for having drugs and framing his own son with them? Instead, he gets to show up as an enraged parent at the judge? Preposterous story.
And the second kid horribly injured people, father believes he was innocent, blame the prison system? Maybe.
Kenzakoski, a 44-year-old Bear Creek Township man employed in construction, said he planted drug paraphernalia in his son's truck about seven years ago, leading to his initial appearance in juvenile court.
Not such a great move, huh Dad? But hey, how could you have known? In as much as you probably have an I.Q. of 56.
When the state contracts with a juvenile facility they are then beholden to fill the beds. Often the crooks who run these places give kickbacks to LE and Judges and Social Services bureaucrats. It’s a very sordid situation in many cities. I personally know of Child Services case workers who have ripped children from parents on trumped up charges just to fill beds in the local psych facility. Recent changes to Utah State Law have ended most of that, but in most States the Child Services act without the slightest oversight or restraint.
Never, EVER get the authorities involved in helping you “parent” your children. I have an acquaintance that called the cops on her son to “scare him”. He spent a year in prison.
______________________________
The police are not your friends and not your children’s friends. Teach them this. No matter what your child did or what they say he did, get the best attorney and get him off. If your child ends up on probation the government will hound him and imprison him for details like having a pack of cigarettes on him.
Some things are only for the state to do.
Taking money to imprison kids should've gotten this SOB "judge" a life sentence.
You know, thirty years ago my brother was caught doing something bogus with some friends. The judge threw the book at him, had him made ready for jail and sit in a cell by himself for a while. then he was brought to the judges chambers where the judge and my father were sitting and he had a good talking to and he was released.
Scared the brother relatively straight.
I think that people sometimes think that it is still the sixites. It is not. Shield your children from the totalitarian horror called the Criminal Justice System and the LEOs who front it.
A law professor explains why you should never talk to the police.
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