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Rift Emerges at Hearing on Juvenile Records in Judicial Corruption Case
Judges admitted to taking more than $2.6 million in payments from owner and builder of juvenile detention center
The Legal Intelligencer
July 21, 2009
Midway through arguments over whether an erasure of records should apply to all juveniles adjudicated by a former Luzerne County, Pa., judge, the state Supreme Court's appointed special master on the issue posed a question.
What should happen, Senior Berks County Judge Arthur Grim asked one of the petitioning attorneys, to juveniles who have not yet finished making restitution payments to victims?
The answer, which came from Lourdes Rosado of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, seemed simple enough -- Grim could carve out those cases from ones in which juveniles have completed their sentences.
"So, double jeopardy attaches kind of, but in some cases doesn't?" Grim questioned.
"You're well within your right to conduct a balancing act in such a situation," Rosado replied.
Friday's hearing was the first time the process of expunging records for thousands of juveniles who appeared before former Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella was discussed in open court. Though both the JLC and the Luzerne County district attorney's office agreed that Ciavarella's judgments should be vacated, the two sides were at sharp disagreement over what else could -- or should -- be done.
Because Ciavarella, Luzerne County's former juvenile delinquency court judge, and fellow former Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Conahan admitted in January to taking more than $2.6 million in payments from one of the owners and the builder of PA Child Care, a private, for-profit juvenile detention center, the JLC has asked the state's high court to order a blanket erasure of records and bar retrial for all juveniles who appeared before Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008 -- the time frame in which he has admitted to taking payments.
Both Ciavarella and Conahan have conditionally agreed to serve 87 months in federal prison. The government alleges that the payments influenced the judges to steer juveniles to the facility, but Ciavarella and Conahan deny that allegation.
Marsha Levick, chief counsel for the JLC, called the criminal activity "the most significant and largest judicial corruption scandal in the United States" during Friday's hearing, which took place in Ciavarella's former courtroom.
The state Supreme Court appointed Grim, the chairman of the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges' Commission, in February to conduct a review of all juvenile cases handled by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008. They allowed him broad discretion in making recommendations and Grim divided the work into at least three phases. The first dealt with the least serious offenses. Grim is in the second phase and has begun reviewing serious misdemeanor and low-level felony cases.
Any phase after this one will deal with more serious charges.
Grim will again file a report and recommendation with the justices. Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille has said he hopes the phase, which likely includes 400 cases, is completed by mid-July or early August.
