News

December 22, 2009

’10 court to rule on CV case retrial

WILKES-BARRE – A Luzerne County judge said Tuesday he would leave it up to his successors to decide how to retry a $3.5 million defamation case against The Citizens’ Voice newspaper.
President Judge Chester Muroski said there are at least three different ways to have the case retried, including bringing in an out-of-town judge.
Muroski said he would present the case to other county judges and the three new judges who will take the bench in January – William Amesbury, Tina Polacheck-Gartley and Joseph Cosgrove – to determine how they could proceed with the trial since Muroski’s term as a county judge ends at midnight on Dec. 31.
In November, the state Supreme Court overturned the defamation verdict against the Wilkes-Barre newspaper and ordered a new trial.
The high court ruled there was a “pervasive appearance of impropriety” in how the case was assigned to and handled by former county judge Mark Ciavarella.
The newspaper’s appeal stems from a verdict Ciavarella entered in favor of Thomas Joseph after a non-jury trial in 2006. The case centered on a series of articles the newspaper ran in 2001 regarding searches that were conducted at the home and business of Joseph and of reputed area mobster William D’Elia.
The newspaper’s attorneys obtained a statement from Robert Kulick, an associate of D’Elia’s, who claimed D’Elia told him then-President Judge Michael Conahan had assured D’Elia there would be a “positive outcome” for Joseph.
Joseph was never charged with any crime in connection with the searches, and he filed suit against the newspaper, alleging the articles damaged his reputation.
Muroski said on Tuesday that, in addition to bringing in an out-of-town judge, attorneys involved in the case can elect to have a county senior judge hear the case, such as senior Judge Joseph Rehkamp, of Perry County, who now serves Luzerne County; or, a regular county judge can be randomly selected.
Muroski said that with 23 homicide cases pending in the county, they take precedence over any civil case, including the newspaper’s lawsuit.
For more information, read Wednesday's Times Leader.
 

Tweet	Follow @TLnews