A specially appointed judge has recommended the state Supreme Court vacate a $3.5 million defamation verdict handed down by a former Luzerne County judge, because he and one of the court’s former president judges were involved in a “tangled web of interconnected relationships” and had the ability to influence the manner in which cases were assigned.
Though former Luzerne County Judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. portrayed a “neutral and detached” case assignment system, the reality was far different, Lehigh County President Judge William H. Platt ruled in a 44-page report to the high court.
