The LuLac Edition #2592, January 31, 2014

JUDICIAL CORRUPTION 5 YEARS ON

Around 2007 through 2008, there were rumors going around Luzerne County that something big was going to rock the world of Luzerne County politics. We were already into the credit card debacle on the County level, heard rumors of Commissioners being investigated and on the State level we were dealing with Tom Corbett’s investigation into Bonus Gate. As the Presidential year 2008 continued there were rumors of a major Judicial problem in Luzerne County. But after an uneventful Holiday season, there seemed to be doubt anything would ever break.
During January 2009, there were little blips but nothing until the last week in January. On January 26th I received an e mail from WYOU TV News Producer Dawn Miller. Since December of 2007, I had been a frequent guest analyst on the TV station but I always seemed to get the 7pm or 11pm call. One or the other. I was at my desk at Blue Cross and she asked if I could be available for all the WYOU TV newscasts that night. All of them I thought? Then I knew the charges were going to come down.
You can’t get a full appreciation for how painful and torturous this scandal was for this community until you start at the beginning. Here’s what I wrote that day from Edition # 705 of LuLac.

COPPING A PLEA

The long saga of impending charges against two Luzerne County Judges appears to be at a dramatic crossroads. Federal officials today announced they charged Luzerne County judges Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan with concealing more than $2.6 million. The dates ranged from January 2003 to January 2007. The charges were filed today in federal court. The charges alleged Ciavarella and Conahan engaged in fraud by taking millions of dollars from two unnamed individuals connected to the construction and expansion of the juvenile detention center. Payments were made to the judges in return for discretionary acts that the judges took related to the juvenile centers. The Judges have already made a plea agreement and will resign the county bench and serve terms of 87 months. Breaking that down, we're talking roughly 7 years. The indictment charges both judges with engaging in a scheme to defraud the public of their honest services and with conspiring to defraud the IRS. The resignations will put the Luzerne County Judiciary in an uproar with 5 Judge vacancies in this election year. Earlier in the day, Ciaverella resigned as President Judge in reaction to his fight with the County Commissioners over budget and hiring matters.
I mean we could have gotten out of this easier had Ciavarella stuck to his deal. For me this whole thing was just plain crazy. I had met Judges. As a boy, my uncle introduced me to Judges Brominski and Hourigan. Later on I had the opportunity to meet Judge Corey Stevens and Patrick Toole Senior. I met men like Ralph Johnston, Tom Mack, Charles Bufalino and Michael Collins who had aspired to be Judges. I once interviewed Commonwealth Court Judge Genvieve Blatt. They were friendly but I knew these guys were the pillars that everything was supposed to stand on. Call me naive and silly but this was a real wake up call for me.
Later on that night on WYOU TV, Attorney Matt Cartwright, Eric Scheiner and me took to the airwaves with WBRE’s Andy Mehalshick and gave these comments.

In the rear view mirror the scandal was bad enough. It cost us in terms of reputation and public trust. But as Cartwright alluded to in his TV appearance, this was only the tip of the iceberg. And all of that happened five years ago this week.