4 results for tag: Judicial Corruption
A Lawyer’s Guide to Luzerne County’s Kids for Cash Scandal
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania is a coal-mining town along the Susquehanna River, in the Wyoming Valley. A town of about 40,000 people, it is the county seat for Luzerne, in the northeast part of the state.
It is also the epicenter of one of the most scandalous stories about the justice system in the country, involving allegations of bribery and kickbacks to judges from the operation of private juvenile detention facilities. Its implications for juvenile justice will likely set the tone for reforms for the next several years.
Kids for Cash
Mark A. Ciavarella, Jr. was a juvenile court judge who had been presiding over the juvenile court for the county ...
PA’s Lax Judicial Oversight in the Masha Allen Case
During the past four years numerous questions have been raised about how and why then-Allegheny County Judge Cheryl Lynn Allen was allowed to preside over the adoption of Masha Allen by her namesake and former roommate Faith Allen.
For a long time I wondered the same thing. Almost three years ago, I filed this complaint with the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board. After supplying additional information at the request of JCB's chief counsel, Joseph A. Massa Jr., the JCB presumably spent a year investigating my allegations. Right after Judge Allen won her hotly contested election to the Pennsylvania court of appeals in late 2007 (she recently ran for ...
Lawyers for Children are Unconstitutional in PA
No surprise here: legislation requiring any juvenile who appears in court to be represented by a lawyer would be unconstitutional according to PA Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille.
This is PA's official judicial response to the Luzerne County PA scandal in which former Common Pleas judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan pleaded guilty in February to taking $2.6 million in bribes to put juveniles in private detention centers. Hundreds of youngsters were sent to facilities without the benefit of legal counsel.
State Senator Lisa Baker, a Republican who represents part of Luzerne County, perhaps said it best (in comments which could apply ...
XOb (PA Judicial Corruption)
Corrupt PA juvenile judge claims "judicial privilege" shields him from lawsuits for illegal juvenile prison terms Link