Luzerne County, PA Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan pleaded guilty to federal charges of “honest services fraud” and tax fraud. Both judges were removed from the bench in January.
The guilty pleas were the result of Ciavarella and Conahan accepting $2.6 million dollars in payouts by PA Child Care, LLC and a sister-company. These companies owned and operated juvenile detention centers to which Judge Ciavarella is accused of sending many juveniles. many of those juveniles were sentenced without a fair hearing or without an attorney present. Judge Conahan is accused of shuttering Luzerne County’s juvenile detention center in favor of the center run by PA Child Care.
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