State Supreme Court approves compensation to kids-for-cash victims

Thursday, July 28^th the Pennsylvania Supreme Court authorized compensation payments for more than 100 victims of juvenile offenders whose convictions were overturned in the aftermath of the Luzerne County kids-for-cash scandal.

Berks County Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim said in a report to the high court that the payments range from $25 to $1,500 depending on the victim's loss, expenses and damages. This amount is the maximum under state juvenile court rules.

Judge Grim, whose review of the scandal-plagued juvenile court led to the reversal of approximately 4,000 juvenile convictions under the control of ex-Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and his partner in crime, ex-Judge Michael T. Conahan, recommended payments for 114 victims, totaling $65,310.

The payments to victims of the juveniles will be disbursed from a $500,000 victim compensation fund established last year by the state legislature, ensuring restitution for victims who would have otherwise been shut out from compensation, Grim said.

The state Supreme Court assigned Grim to review the cases in February 2009, after federal prosecutors charged Ciavarella and Conahan with pocketing kickbacks from two for-profit juvenile detention centers. The ex-judges received the illegal payments as compensation for sending juveniles to PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care.

State Senator John Yudichak, (D-Nanticoke), who backed the creation of the victim compensation fund, commended the state Supreme Court's payment authorization.

“This is yet another step in the long process of moving the state and Luzerne County forward as we recover from one of the darkest times in Pennsylvania judicial history,” Yudichak said. “These payments will help those people who did not receive full restitution for their losses and hopefully provide them with some measure of justice.”

Conahan, who pleaded guilty in April 2010, awaits sentencing while Ciavarella, who chose to go to trial, is scheduled to be sentenced on August 11^th. The two facilities remain open and continue to accept juveniles from many Pennsylvania counties, though Luzerne County no longer sends delinquents to them.

Attorneys file brief to keep civil suit in Luzerne County

Attorneys representing juveniles and parents who are suing former Judge Mark Ciavarella and others for damages resulting from the “Cash For Kids” scandal, filed a lengthy brief in support of their motion to have more time to file an amended complaint. The primary motive for the amended complaint is to prevent a judge from dismissing multiple Luzerne County officials, including former Commissioner Greg Skrepenak, from the suit.

The amended complaint will clearly explain why they believe county defendants should not be dismissed. Attorneys have also argued that the defendants have been dismissive of their complaint. Paperwork argues that Luzerne County defendants have ignored “the compelling facts put forward by the plaintiffs, especially those relating to Defendant Gregory Skrepenak’s conduct,” and instead repeatedly attack the plaintiffs’ counsel, claiming that they are playing “fast and loose” with the facts, have pushed the “ethical envelope,” and have engaged in “bad faith pleading.”

The filing includes a letter from the county attorney, Timothy Myers, arguing the efforts to prevent dismissal of county defendants from the case are “a desperate attempt to plead around” the motion to dismiss county defendants. Also included in the filing are 64 pages of the final report from the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice, a board set up to review what happened in Luzerne County's juvenile courts and recommend changes to avoid a recurrence.

Also included in the filing is the Plea agreement of former Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak and a transcript from the trial of former county judge Mark Ciavarella that took place in February. Further inclusions are the transcript of the prosecutions examination of Doris Crow, a state accountant with the Department of Public Welfare. In that testimony, Crowe spoke of the amount of Federal money the county received to subsidize the detention and treatment of juveniles at PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care, the two private facilities owned by Attorney Robert Powell that were at the center of Ciavarella's charges.

Misplaced Time

House Arrest: Crime = NONE
3 months, 13 weeks, 93 days, 2208 hours, 132,480 minutes, seconds 1,339,205


Away From Home
11 months, 49 weeks, 334 days, 8035 hours, 4,821,201 minutes, 28,927,210 seconds





Time In Hell ~ Sentenced By The Hands Of Society’s Scum
15 years, 784 weeks, 5490 days, 131,760 hours, 7,905,600 minutes, 474,336,000 seconds