Save juvenile records, judge asked

SCRANTON - A federal judge was asked yesterday to preserve thousands of juvenile court records caught up in a judicial scandal.

The state Supreme Court's plan to delete more than 6,000 records will prevent youths in Northeastern Pennsylvania from pursuing federal civil-rights claims against a corrupt judge and keep secret the extent of the judge's misconduct, lawyers for some of the children asserted in federal court.

This year, prosecutors charged Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and another former Luzerne County judge, Michael Conahan, with taking $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in privately owned lockups. The judges pleaded guilty to fraud.

Ciavarella and Conahan yesterday filed motions to dismiss the four federal lawsuits that have been filed against them, claiming they are entitled to judicial immunity.

Ciavarella told a Wilkes-Barre TV station that he is sorry for what he did but that he never took cash to send juveniles to jail. His guilty plea encompasses his failure to report the kickbacks as income on his federal taxes and on a state judicial disclosure form.

"I didn't do anything wrong relative to any juvenile. I never took a dime for sending a kid away. All I ever did is what I thought was in the best interest of that child," Ciavarella told WNEP.

The Supreme Court last week ordered the preservation of records of about 400 youths who have sued the judges. The court's order did not cover youths who aren't part of the litigation but who may be entitled to damages if the case is certified a class action. Attorneys want those records preserved, too. They asked U.S. District Judge Richard Caputo to save the records of all 6,500 youths who appeared before Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008.