Child Trafficking Case in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania moves to Expose Broad Civil Rights Violations

Child Trafficking advisory: Elevated

PA Supreme Court Grants Juvenile Law Center’s Application for Extraordinary Relief for Juveniles in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania February 11, 2009

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted JLC’s application for extraordinary relief for juveniles in Luzerne County and appointed a special master, Judge Arthur Grim of Berks County Court of Common Pleas, to investigate the violations of children’s rights and return to the Supreme Court with recommendations for relief. Two judges pleaded guilty to accepting $2.6 million in kickbacks to imprison children in private detention centers without legal representation. The court will examine nearly 5,000 cases involving children since 2003.

The Court declared that its goal “is to determine whether the alleged travesty of juvenile justice in Luzerne County occurred, and if it did, to identify the affected juveniles and rectify the situation as fairly and swiftly as possible.”

“This is heartening news for youth and families in Luzerne County,” said Marsha Levick, Juvenile Law Center’s Legal Director. “We applaud the Supreme Court for extending to the Special Master broad discretion to remedy the harms caused by these judges. We look forward to working with Judge Grim to make sure that justice is done for the thousands of juveniles who are affected.”

The state Supreme Court agreed Monday to immediately review the cases of hundreds of young defendants who passed through the Luzerne County Court system while Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. was allegedly accepting payoffs to facilitate the development of a juvenile detention center.

“The court views this matter with grave concern,” Ronald D. Castille, the chief justice of Pennsylvania, said in a statement.

The court’s action came three days after the Juvenile Law Center, a Philadelphia-based advocacy group, asked the state Supreme Court to intervene, amid growing concern over Judge Ciavarella’s impartiality and fairness.

The court vacated a Jan. 8 order denying a petition filed in April in which the Juvenile Law Center accused Judge Ciavarella of ignoring rules of procedure and violating young defendants’ due process rights by running them through the system without legal representation.

Federal prosecutors charged Judge Ciavarella, the former president judge, and Senior Judge Michael T. Conahan on Jan. 26 with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit tax fraud, and accused them of collecting $2.6 million between January 2003 and April 2007 from the co-owner and developer of a juvenile detention center in Pittston Twp. and a similar facility in Butler County, near Pittsburgh.

Under plea agreements, Judges Ciavarella and Cona-han must serve 87 months in federal prison and resign their positions as judges within 10 days of their pleas, which are scheduled Feb. 12 at the William J. Nealon Federal Courthouse in Scranton.

On Jan. 28, the state Supreme Court removed Judge Ciavarella from all judicial duties and revoked Judge Conahan’s certificate, barring him from serving as a senior judge.

“In light of the information revealed by the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the expanded petition filed by the Juvenile Law Center, we will exercise our King’s Bench and constitutional supervisory powers in this matter,” Chief Justice Castille said.

Under state law, the state Supreme Court has supervisory powers over all other Pennsylvania courts and, in cases where the court finds a matter of immediate public importance at stake, can takes a case for immediate review and out of the normal channels of litigation, Stuart Ditzen, a spokesman for the Administrative Office for Pennsylvania Courts, said.

“We are extremely pleased that the court is stepping in and that they recognized the extreme public importance of the issues that are at stake here,” Marsha Levick, the legal director of the Juvenile Law Center, said.

Judge Ciavarella admitted in May to skipping directly to sentencing instead of reading a state-mandated reminder of their right to an attorney, but never disclosed the alleged payoffs. Around the same time, Judge Ciavarella stepped aside as juvenile court judge and appointed Judge David W. Lupas as his replacement.

In the revised filing, which was accepted by the state Supreme Court, attorneys for the Juvenile Law Center asked the state Supreme Court to reconsider and amend the original application, “as this case is now about the wholesale subversion of the Luzerne County juvenile justice system over many years.”

Attorneys for the Juvenile Law Center said they were filing the revised petition on behalf of all juveniles who were subjected to delinquency proceedings in Luzerne County between the beginning of 2003 and May 23, the day Judge Ciavarella stepped aside from the juvenile court.

According to the state Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission, 5,210 of the young defendants who appeared in Luzerne County Juvenile Court between 2003 and 2006 were deemed delinquent.

In 2006, the last year for which data is available, 1,101 defendants were deemed delinquent and 398 were placed in a secure juvenile detention facility.

In 2003, 778 of the 1499 delinquent juveniles were placed in secure detention. In 2004, the rate was 914 of 1,369 and in 2005, 491 of 1,241.

Newly elected President Judge Chester B. Muroski last Friday encouraged the Juvenile Law Center to continue its pursuit of justice for the young defendants and said the courts will cooperate with the group and with parents of juveniles who seek to have their juvenile court records expunged.

“We look forward to finally achieving justice for the kids affected by this in Luzerne County,” Ms. Levick said.

Thousands of plaintiffs could be included in a class-action lawsuit being drafted on behalf of juveniles who appeared before suspended Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. while he was allegedly taking payoffs from the developers of a privately owned detention center, Wilkes-Barre attorney Barry H. Dyller said.

“This calls out to be a class action because there are so many plaintiffs involved,” Dyller said. “The underlying facts about what happened, about what each individual defendant did, are the same.”

Dyller completed a draft of the complaint last week and said he was “basically making sure we’re crossing our t’s and dotting our i’s” before filing in U.S. District Court. He would not disclose when he plans to bring the lawsuit or who he will name as defendants.

Targets could include Ciavarella and his co-defendant, decertified Senior Judge Michael T. Conahan, Robert Mericle, the developer whose company built the juvenile detention center in Pittston Township, and attorney Robert J. Powell, a former co-owner of the facility.

Federal prosecutors charged Ciavarella and Conahan, both former president judges, on Jan. 26 with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit tax fraud, and accused them of collecting $2.6 million between January 2003 to April 2007 from the co-owner and developer of a juvenile detention center in Pittston Township and a similar facility in Butler County.

Under plea agreements, Ciavarella and Conahan must serve 87 months in federal prison and must resign their positions as judges within 10 days of their plea, which is scheduled for Thursday.

Keith Molnar, 19, of Ashley, who said he was a former detainee at the juvenile detention center, filed a lawsuit in Luzerne County court last Thursday against Ciavarella, Conahan, Mericle and Powell.

Molnar said he was arrested for burglary and sentenced to six months at the Pennsylvania Child Care LLC in 2006. He claimed the sentence was too stringent and his time at the center rough.

“That messes with your head real bad, that’s how that place was,” Molnar said. “It was for people who really had problems. They had problems in their head, psychological problems, drinking problems, drug problems. And almost everyone in there did. I just don’t think I should have been sent there.”

A class-action lawsuit in this case will be more effective and pragmatic than thousands of similar individual claims, Dyller said.

“It would be overwhelming for the courts, it would be unduly duplicative,” Dyller said. “We’d have to prove it a thousand or 2,000 times. Just as it would be difficult on the lawyers, it would be difficult on the courts as well.”

According to the state Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission, 5,210 of the young defendants who appeared in Luzerne County Juvenile Court between 2003 and 2006 were deemed delinquent.

In 2006, the last year for which data is available, 1,101 defendants were deemed delinquent and 398 were placed in a secure juvenile detention facility.

In 2003, 778 of the 1,499 delinquent juveniles were placed in secure detention. In 2004, the rate was 914 of 1,369 and in 2005, 491 of 1,241.

“This whole scandal, as I’m talking to more and more people, it’s very disheartening what was happening to the kids in this county,” Dyller said. “It’s very, very disheartening.”

Attorney Michael Cefalo, whose West Pittston firm, Cefalo & Associates, has established a special internal task force to evaluate individual cases, and attorney Joseph A. Lach, of Kingston, have said they are also considering filing lawsuits on behalf of juveniles sentenced by Ciavarella.

The Cefalo firm has posted a “Juvenile Detention Questionnaire” on its Web site, with questions for young defendants about the charges they faced, the date of the incident and whether they were advised of their right to an attorney or if they were represented by an attorney when they appeared before Ciavarella.

Lach said he is working to determine the kind of resolution that could be obtained through a lawsuit and who to name as defendants without placing “an undo burden on the taxpayers of Luzerne County.”

“We may very well file something, but we’re not going to rush into it. I think what’s happening is there are some folks out there who are advertising. We want to take our time with this,” Lach said. “Speed certainly is a factor in the resolution of any claim, but we’re more interested in making sure we know what it is that we’re doing. We want to be sure that we can be truly helpful in a way that’s constructive to everyone.”

Lach said he would handle any potential suit on a pro bono basis.

“This is not about money for the lawyers,” Lach said. “This is about people who were victims of the legal system.”

Dyller will not charge fees to the plaintiffs in his lawsuit, but said a judge could impose attorney’s fees on the defendants at the same time damages are awarded.

“There are parents who have called who have said ‘I was shocked with what happened to my child,’” Lach said. “They were concerned with things that they thought were wrong. These are not easy cases and there’s a lot of reflection that needs to go into what happens. We want to be very caution in saying something did or did not happen, but obviously there’s a groundswell of concern from people who question whether justice was applied fairly.”

Family Input in Sentencing

Many people have expressed that they would like to provide the US Attorneys with statements regarding how these Judges’ wrongdoings affected their children and their families. If you believe that you were a victim as part of the Luzerne County corruption prosecutions, and if you want to learn more about your rights as a victim, please contact Laurie Reiley at 1-866-673-7340. You may also send a statement explaining why you feel you are a victim at the following address that will be considered during the sentencing phase.

United States Attorney’s Office

Middle District of Pennsylvania

Attention: Laurie Reiley

P.O. Box 1023

Harrisburg, PA 17108

If you have retained Juvenile Law Center for legal representation in this matter, Juvenile Law Center will collect your statements and send them to the Victim-Witness Coordinator at the US Attorneys Office so the Prosecution can consider it when seeking a sentence. Juvenile Law Center may also ask you if you would like to share your story with the press. However, no stories will be shared without the permission of the families. Families who have retained Juvenile Law Center may send their statements to luzernefamilies@jlc.org or to:

Juvenile Law Center

Attn: Luzerne Victims

1315 Walnut St., 4th Floor

Philadelphia, PA 19107

The United States Attorney's Office website has more information on the federal prosecution. Finally, if you believe that you have information relating to criminal wrongdoing please contact FBI Special Richard Southerton at 570-344-2404 or the IRS at 570-969-5300.

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