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Pocono News Section
Hearing Held to Decide Fate of Juvenile Cases
Hearing Held to Decide Fate of Juvenile Cases - Friday, July 17, 2009 at 10:10PM EST
Reported by: Andy Mehalshick
Friday, Jul 17, 2009 @ 10:10pm EST
WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY- The fates of thousands of juvenile cases in Luzerne County hang in the balance. It's another shockwave lingering from the Luzerne County corruption probe. A hearing was held Friday to decide if juvenile cases should be re-tried.
A 16-year-old girl, who did not want to be identified, was sent away for two years by Judge Mark Ciavarella for simply questioning a police officer. "It wasn't a felony or anything like that but it was so simple, a disorderly conduct. I'm going through probation now for two years for such a little thing. I shouldnŐt be going through that. It's just ridiculous," she told Eyewitness News.
And thousands of other kids tell similar stories. They were sent to detention centers like PA Child Care Center. Ciavarella and Micheal Conahan pleaded guilty to taking kickbacks from people connected to that facility. Lawyer for the juveniles want all the cases thrown out.
Attorney Marsha Levick of the Juvenile Law Center said, "We have a situation here where we have an unprecedented pervasive pattern, violation of childrensŐ rights over a period of years, thousands of children have been affected. The law provides remedies and one of those, we're asking, undo everything that happened here."
But District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll says a clean sweep will only make a bad problem even worse. "What we want to do is have the opportunity to retry all of these cases, go back and look at each one, evaluate the seriousness, whether evidence is available make our decision. We think the wrong thing to do is discharge all of those individuals." | | |
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