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Pa. Justices Expunge 'Tainted' Juvenile Cases
Decision is effectively wholesale adoption of court-appointed special master's recommendation
The Legal Intelligencer
October 30, 2009
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has issued a sweeping order vacating nearly all of the records for juveniles who appeared before a former Luzerne County judge there.
The decision, which is effectively a wholesale adoption of a court-appointed special master's recommendation, criticizes former Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. for running a courtroom with "a disturbing lack of fundamental process, inimical to any system of justice."
It similarly describes Ciavarella as overseeing a "systematic failure" by neglecting to explain to juveniles the importance of forgoing trial on charges and for neglecting to explain the factual bases for peremptory guilty pleas.
Ciavarella and fellow former Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Conahan have been charged by federal prosecutors with taking $2.8 million in payments from one of the former co-owners and the builder of PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care, two private, for-profit juvenile detention centers.
Ciavarella had sentenced children to those facilities.
Prosecutors allege those payments motivated the judge's sentencing rulings and attorneys for juveniles who appeared before Ciavarella have argued, however, that the former judge's failure to have juveniles represented by counsel or conduct a proper colloquy amounted to constitutional violations.
The court's order is a response to those allegations and allows Berks County Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim to expunge all but a select grouping of records for juveniles who appeared before Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008.
The order, however, does allow prosecutors discretion to continue proceedings against a limited number of juveniles -- those who have not yet received final discharge or who have not yet paid all fines, restitution or fees.
Those cases will be limited to those that have not been finalized and they must be identified by the Luzerne County district attorney's office within 30 days. Juveniles in those cases will be allowed to pursue claims of double jeopardy or other arguments against re-prosecution, according to the order.
The Juvenile Law Center, which represented the juveniles, "applauded" the court's decision in a statement.
"The Court's far-reaching order is an exceptional response to the most serious judicial scandal in the history of the United States," a part of the statement reads.
Luzerne County District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll could not be reached for comment.
In an August recommendation, Grim told the justices Pennsylvania case law required records for those juveniles who were adjudicated delinquent or entered consent decrees in front of Ciavarella and were sentenced to either PA Child Care or Western PA Child Care be expunged. For the other juveniles who appeared before Ciavarella during that same time frame, but were not sentenced to either of those facilities, the justices are within their rights to expunge the records, Grim said.
Grim termed that second class of juveniles "Remaining Cases."
Officials believe there are thousands of juveniles in that group.
"This court is aware, of course, that some juveniles appeared before Ciavarella with counsel and were not committed to either of the PA Child Care facilities," the justices wrote in the order Thursday. "We agree with the parties and Judge Grim, however, that those cases are no less tainted by Ciavarella having presided. Judge Grim refers to the 'pall' that was cast over all juvenile matters presided over by Ciavarella, given his financial interest, and his conduct in cases where juveniles proceeded without counsel. We fully agree that, given the nature and extent of the taint, this Court simply cannot have confidence that any juvenile matter adjudicated by Ciavarella during this period was tried in a fair and impartial manner."
In February, the court appointed Grim, the chairman of the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges' Commission, to conduct a review of all juvenile cases handled by Ciavarella while he served as a delinquency court judge. The justices allowed Grim broad discretion in making recommendations.
Grim divided the work into at least three phases, but, during the second phase, asked the justices to vacate each juvenile's record. Grim had told the justices re-prosecution of some juveniles was barred by double jeopardy.
The Luzerne County district attorney's office argued that could not be the case. It also asked the justices to remand the issue to develop a more detailed record.
Grim had based his recommendation on the basis that both Ciavarella and Conahan had entered conditional guilty pleas for taking payments, but they later withdrew those pleas.
The justices, though, found an adequate record in pending criminal cases, Ciavarella's testimony during an unrelated civil hearing also on remand from the high court and court transcripts from his time as delinquency court judge.
The court also wrote that it did not need to rule on the issue of double jeopardy or judicial misconduct in order to reach its decision.
"The situation at hand is so unique and extreme that it has already warranted exercise of this Court's plenary review pursuant to our King's Bench powers," the court wrote. "We award the relief suggested by Judge Grim in the interest of justice and in the exercise of our plenary powers, and we do not pass upon Judge Grim's suggestion that state constitutional double jeopardy principles command that result."
