Former Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Conahan had such control over the county’s courthouse that he was referred to as “the boss,” “completely” controlled hiring practices and warned a former courthouse employee her actions were interfering with the business interests of a private juvenile detention center, according to a filing made by another former judge there.
Ann H. Lokuta, who has been fighting to have her removal from the bench overturned by the Court of Judicial Discipline, provided the court with statements from four individuals — three of whom are current or former courthouse employees — supporting her previous claims that Conahan and a third former judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., exerted an influence that “extended to reach nearly everything that happened under the domes of the Luzerne County Courthouse.”
