Pocono News Section

Judge Tosses Ciavarella Juvenile Rulings

Judge Tosses Ciavarella Juvenile Rulings - Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 11:50PM EST

Reported by: Joe Holden
Wednesday, Aug 12, 2009 @ 11:50pm EST
LUZERNE COUNTY- Another bombshell in the courthouse corruption case. A judge throws out all juvenile cases decided on by Judge Mark Ciaverella.

The cases are from a five year period from 2003 to 2008. Does this mean some juveniles are getting a free pass? That's what the D. A. worries about...

But, a special judge appointed to oversee this matter makes it pretty clear. If you attempted to re-try any of the juveniles who already appeared before ex-judge Mark Ciavarella, you could run into double-jeopardy.

And we're also reading more in the order about Ciavarella's courtroom conduct, where he threatened to ship out juveniles and apparently barked at them, telling them what'd happen if they came back in front him.

Mark Ciavarella ignored 1,866 juveniles right to an attorney, sending some away to prison. Others got off easier.

In another blow to the juvenile justice system, a special judge on Wednesday recommended all of those cases be wiped out - never to be revisited.

ÒI'm disappointed in that the court is not going to allow us to re-try all of them. What we wanted to do was go back, review the cases and determine which ones we wanted to go forward with, based on the seriousness of case,Ó said D. A. Jackie Musto Carroll.

She asks about the victims of some of the more serious crimes. Are those delinquent juveniles now getting a free pass? ÒThere's no doubt the actions of Ciavarella and Conahan are going to be impacting the people of Luzerne County for a very long time to come. I don't think we can forsee what some of those consequences are going to be,Ó she said.

For now, five years worth of rulings by Ciavarella are most likely out the window. Ciavarella's ignorance of juvenile rights and his part in a money-making scheme to imprison juveniles are to blame.

Paralleling this ruling, a number of civil cases are taking shape. But Ciavarella and his conspirator, ex-judge Michael Conahan claim they're immune from those actions.

As for rebuilding a tarnished system, the question is not how, but when. ÒWhat we're seeing right now in this case are the consequences of those acts and what it has done to the juvenile justice system,Ó said Musto Carroll.

And now the state Supreme Court has the recommendations of this special judge.

But there's more work to be done. There could be potential fall out from the action or inaction of some court officers in failing to intervene when all of these juveniles weren't afforded the right to counsel.

That's something Eyewitness News is working on.