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PA Supreme Court overturns juvenile convictions of corrupt judge
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by smkovalinsky | October 29, 2009 at 07:28 pm
298 views | 10 Recommendations | 2 comments
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PA Supreme Court overturns juvenile convictions of corrupt judge
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The PA Supreme Court has overturned thousands of youth convictions after finding the Judge ruling their cases was involved in Youth Detention kickbacks.
From the following it is clear this man had no business representing courts of justice.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday overturned thousands of juvenile-offender convictions handed down by a judge now charged in a corruption scandal.The judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas, and Michael T. Conahan, a fellow judge who for a time was the chief of that court, are charged with taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks from the owner of two privately run youth detention centers in exchange for their sending teenagers there.
The Supreme Court said the conviction of any juvenile who appeared before Judge Ciavarella after Jan. 1, 2003, was invalid. The justices barred the retrial of all but an estimated 100 of those cases.
The decision followed advice the court received from Arthur Grim, a Berks County judge whom it appointed in February to review juvenile cases involving Judges Ciavarella and Conahan.
Judge Ciavarella, who along with Judge Conahan awaits federal trial on charges of income-tax and wire fraud, routinely held juvenile hearings that lasted just minutes, failing to ask the youths before him whether they understood the consequences of waiving their right to a lawyer and pleading guilty.
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smkovalinsky
New York, New York, United States
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Recommendations (10)
Phyrillas
Pottstown, Pennsylvania, United States
Roy C
Vancouver, Washington, United States
jazzyzazzy
Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Hugh Askew
Omaha, Nebraska, United States
a211423
Clearlake, California, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 08:18 on October 30th, 2009
That is really, really wrong, sick, and wrong, and way wrong.
If guilty, i would recommend a public flogging, followed by life in prison.
It is a huge miscarriage of justice to the young, and to the general public.
The youth, some guilty, some perhaps not, got robbed of justice - for good or ill.
The public was denied justice because some of the accused were undoubtedly innocent, and because the guilty are now back on the streets.
at 08:21 on October 30th, 2009
Yes, Hugh, I agree on all counts. This sort of thing makes one worry that it is going on elsewhere and simply has not yet been detected. These corrupt judges are just awful, and I cannot imagine their motivation while wearing the sacred robes. But then, corruption seems a taint in all areas.