Pocono News Section

Judges Indictment Fueling New Opinions

Judges Indictment Fueling New Opinions - Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 5:49PM EST

Reported by: Mike Trim
Thursday, Sep 10, 2009 @ 05:49pm EST
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY- Two former Luzerne County judges could have spent seven years in prison.

Now they could be facing decades behind bars.

A federal indictment was handed up Wednesday for Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan.

Their original guilty pleas in the same investigation were thrown out last month.

The new list of charges is forming new opinions from people like Ron Deeble of Forty Fort.

“I'm appalled. I felt that the 87 months term that they were given was a light sentence. I felt that they deserved and I hope they get what they deserve," said Deeble.

The feds slapped Ciavarella and Conahan with racketeering, bribery, extortion and more.

The indictment says the former judges jailed juveniles in facilities in which they had a financial interest.

We now know that money came from prominent attorney Robert Powell and wealthy developer Robert Mericle for the construction and operation of those facilities.

According to this paperwork, the former judges used several ways to hide 2.8 million dollars in kickbacks for sending juveniles away.

They allegedly used wire payments through several companies, mislabeled checks, even put money in their wives accounts

People like Justine Claxton says these new allegations are sickening.

"If they're stealing, having kickbacks, those sorts of things, what kind of example of that for our young people? We have a lot of young people that are delinquent in this area and they need some mentor," said Claxton.

Ciavarella and Conahan pleaded guilty to lesser charges in February.

A judge then rejected the guilty pleas.

Conahan and Ciaverella withdrew their pleas leading to this indictment.

Gene English of Kingston wants a trial soon.

"All these things keep going on and when are they really going to get to jail? How many pleas are they going to make and what's going to happen there?" said English.

Both Ciavarella and Conahan's formal arraignments are scheduled for Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Scranton .

If this case goes to trial, they both could face 25 to 30 years in jail.