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SCRANTON - Two top Luzerne County Court judges took kickbacks to place juvenile offenders in detention centers, even ordering some to be locked up against the recommendations of probation officers, federal authorities said yesterday.
President Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Judge Michael T. Conahan agreed to a plea deal that would send them to prison for seven years, according to an agreement filed in federal court Monday.
The judges allegedly concealed $2.6 million in payments from one of the owners of the centers and an unnamed person, authorities said. At the same time, the judges also worked to ensure that the facilities reaped millions of dollars in business by sending them a steady number of juveniles.
The judges also agreed to plead to tax fraud. Both have stepped down, have agreed to be disbarred and will pay restitution, according to prosecutors.
"They sold their oath of offices to the highest bidders," said Deron Roberts, chief of the FBI's Scranton office.
The charges and plea agreements are the first developments in a nearly two-year investigation by the FBI, the IRS and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Harrisburg into corruption at the Luzerne County courthouse in Wilkes-Barre, said Martin C. Carlson, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Apparently Pennsylvania's Department of Welfare and a local civil rights group believe that hundreds of juveniles were denied their constitutional rights as a result.
