2 Luzerne County judges plead guilty

SCRANTON - Two Luzerne County Court judges who prosecutors say took kickbacks for sending juvenile offenders to two for-profit detention centers pleaded guilty yesterday to corruption and tax-fraud charges.

Federal prosecutors said former President Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan collected a total of $2.6 million over seven years from a former owner of the centers and their developer. One center is in Luzerne County and the other is in Butler County.

Prosecutors said the judges, who are both no longer on the bench, helped the centers secure contracts worth $58 million, suppressed a critical audit of one of the centers, and closed a competing county-run center.

By pleading guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court to "honest services" fraud and tax fraud, the men conceded that the government could prove the basic elements of the felony charges.

They also agreed to spend more than seven years in prison, pending sentencing approval by Judge Edwin M. Kosik.

But prosecutors and defense attorneys are at odds over some of the circumstances alleged in the case. "I think there will be significant disagreement as to what the facts are. Was there a connection between the payments and money and people going to prisons? Those will be addressed later by the court," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod.

When asked by reporters after the court session whether the judges engaged in a kickback scheme, Zubrod replied: "Yes, yes."

Ciavarella and Conahan said little in court and declined to speak to reporters afterward. Their attorneys said the two men never sentenced juveniles in exchange for financial remuneration.

The two detention centers in the case are PA Child Care L.L.C. and Western PA Child Care L.L.C. On Wednesday, attorneys for Robert J. Powell, their former owner, said he was the victim of the judges, who demanded payments. Powell, who has not been charged, has been cooperating with federal authorities.

Powell's partner at the time in the facilities, Gregory Zappala, has not been accused of any wrongdoing and had no knowledge of Powell's actions, according to a source close to the investigation. Zappala bought Powell out in 2008 and is sole owner of the facilities.

Kosik allowed the two former judges to remain free, under $1 million unsecured bail, until he acts on the proposed sentence. As part of his review, he instructed probation officials to interview every juvenile the men sentenced.

In the courtroom after yesterday's hearing, Susan Mishanski, 46, said the proceeding bore no resemblance to what she considered the abrupt and demeaning proceeding her son, Kevin Williamson, 17, endured at the bench of Ciavarella.

Williamson was charged with simple assault for fighting with another boy at a concert in 2005. It was his first offense.

Ciavarella sentenced Williamson to 90 days in a juvenile wilderness camp.

"The way it all worked today, that was the way it should have worked in his courtroom," she said.

"He gets to hang out here," she said, watching Ciavarella talk with his attorneys after the hearing. "My son got taken right off, right into handcuffs and shackles and into a van."