Lawyer guilty of stocking jails he owned
SCRANTON - A lawyer at the center of a $2.5 million kickback scheme involving a pair of corrupt judges and hundreds of juvenile criminal cases pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday.
Robert Powell, 49, pleaded guilty to concealing a felony and to being an accessory for his role in paying two judges who sentenced juvenile offenders to a pair of private detention facilities he owned.
The Hazleton lawyer was charged after former Luzerne County Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella pleaded guilty in February to accepting the payoffs. The judges' admissions prompted the state Supreme Court to overturn hundreds of juvenile convictions issued by Ciavarella, ruling that he had violated the constitutional rights of youth offenders.
Among the offenders ordered into Powell's detention centers were teenagers who were locked up for months for minor offenses, including petty theft, prank notes and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Prosecutors said that Powell paid $772,500 in kickbacks, disguising the payments as rental fees to the judges for docking his yacht at their Florida condominium. Under a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office, he will give up his ownership stake in the 56-foot yacht, named "Reel Justice," as well as a corporate jet. *
