A former juvenile court judge in Pennsylvania was sentenced to 28 years in prison on Thursday for his part in an alleged “kids for cash” scam considered one of the worst judicial scandals in US history.
Mark Ciavarella Jr., 61, a former judge in Luzerne County, was also ordered to pay $1.17 million in restitution.
Mr. Ciavarella was convicted in federal court in Scranton, Pa., in February on charges that he and a second judge, Michael Conahan, ran the local court system as a racketeering enterprise.
The federal indictment says the two judges accepted $2.8 million in kickbacks from the owner and builder of two privately-run juvenile detention facilities. In exchange, the judges agreed to close down the county’s own juvenile detention center, which would have competed with the new, privately-run facilities. In addition they guaranteed that juvenile offenders from their court would be directed to the privately-run facilities.
Mr. Conahan, pleaded guilty last year to a single count of racketeering and is awaiting sentencing.
In comments to the court, Ciavarella apologized to the community and to the children whose cases he had adjudicated. “I blame no one but myself for what happened.
On Thursday, the tables turned against the 61-year-old former judge as he found himself on the receiving end of a 28-year prison sentence that in all likelihood assures he will spend essentially the rest of his life in prison. He was also ordered to pay nearly $1.2 million in restitution.
The sentence was nearly four times the length of the 87-month prison term Ciavarella and his one-time co-defendant, ex-Judge Michael Conahan, had previously worked out with prosecutors in a plea agreement reached in January 2009. The deal was later rejected by U.S. District Judge Edwin Kosik.
Ciavarella, his family and others in the courtroom showed little reaction when the sentence was read. At Ciavarella’s request, he was taken immediately into custody. He was transported by federal marshals to an unknown facility to await transfer to a federal prison that will be designated at a later date.
Kosik imposed the sentence following a roughly hour-long hearing at which Ciavarella first apologized to all those he had harmed, then turned defiant as he again denounced the “kids for cash” moniker with which he has been branded.
Ciavarella was convicted in February of 12 of 39 counts, including racketeering, money laundering, mail fraud and tax evasion relating to his acceptance of nearly $1 million from Robert Mericle, the builder of the PA and Western PA Child Care juvenile detention centers.
Addressing the court, Ciavarella acknowledged he illegally accepted money from Mericle. But he denied that he ever jailed a juvenile in exchange for cash, or that he violated the civil rights of youths who appeared before him.
“I blame no one but myself for what has happened,” Ciavarella said during a 20-minute address to the court. “I had the opportunity to say ‘no’ to taking money that I believed was legal to receive, but knew that I should not take ... because it was wrong and unethical for me do so, especially in my capacity as a juvenile court judge.”
Ciavarella apologized to his family, the citizens of Luzerne County, his former colleagues on the bench and probation department employees. He also apologized to juveniles who appeared before him, saying he hoped they could forgive him “for being a hypocrite by not practicing what I preached.
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