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luzerne county judicial scandal

By Jerry Lynott jlynott@timesleader.com
Business Writer
Jerry Lynott on Facebook   |   @TLJerryLynott on Twitter

JUPITER, FLA. – It’s a place where wealth is in full view among the yachts, luxury cars and condos.

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Yachts at Jupiter Yacht Club, near a condominium owned by a company connected to former Luzerne County President Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, cost an average of about $1.5 million, said the dockmaster.

CHRIS MATULA/FOR THE TIMES LEADER

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It’s a place, too, where privacy is bought and sought behind walls, trimmed hedgerows and gates opened by guards who know the residents by name or the color of their BMW, Mercedes or Lexus.

In his tan uniform, Louis Pagan is the sentry at the Jupiter Yacht Club and expresses shock at why the residents of Unit 303 in the Mariner building are not coming back.

Former Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas President Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, who most recently worked as a senior judge, have agreed to plead guilty to charges they took more than $2.6 million in kickbacks in a scheme involving a juvenile detention center in Pittston Township. The two men face 87 months in a federal prison. Arraignment is scheduled for Thursday at 1 p.m. in Scranton federal court.

“To me they were nice people,” Pagan says.

The Pinnacle Group of Jupiter LLC has put the 2,958-square-foot condominium it bought for $785,000 in February 2004 on the market. Barbara Conahan, the judge’s wife, is listed as the manager for the company with a Deer Run Drive, Mountain Top address, the same one as the Conahans’ home

The third-floor unit with a balcony view over the Jupiter Yacht Club marina and the Intracoastal Waterway to the west has been for sale since July. It has three bedrooms and an equal number of full baths, a modern kitchen with appliances, washer and dryer and a one-car garage. The asking price has been dropped to $995,000 from $1.1 million.

“It’s an average price for this place,” said Robert Pasquale, a broker with the real estate firm Engel & Volkers. The company has a ground-floor office in the coral and sand-colored Mariner building next to the marina.

‘Very well-to-do people’

The six-story Mariner was the second of the five buildings constructed by developer WCI Communities Inc. Construction on the Pointe began in 2001, followed by the Mariner in 2003 and the Admiral, Anchorage and Commodore over the next three years.

Across the highway in each direction are big and small shopping centers, home to specialty stores, restaurants, supermarkets, banks and offices. About a mile farther north, signs point to the entrance to Burt Reynolds Park, and beyond that the red base of a lighthouse towers above Jupiter Inlet.

Pasquale describes the condo complex as “a quiet, laid back place” and the residents as “very well-to-do people.” The condos range in price from $685,000 to $2.4 million, he adds.

Just a few of the 150 units in the complex are owned by companies such as Pinnacle Group. Most are personal residences. Reflecting only some of the turmoil in South Florida real estate, just over 10 percent of the units are for sale.

The marina, which was there before the condos, is equally prized for its location. Slips sell for more than $250,000.

“This is the top of the line. This is the most prestigious on the south Florida coast,” said dockmaster Chris Smith, a Monmouth, N.J., transplant.

Motor yachts, express cruisers, fishing boats of various sizes and shapes are tied and lashed to moorings. Smith set a floor for their value, saying they’re worth $1.5 million and up.

Painted on their bows are names and hailing ports – Wrinkle People, Hilton Head, S.C.; Fully Loaded, Newport, R.I.; Sea Duced, George Town, C.I., and Star Dust, Plano, TX.

Until late 2004, attorney Robert Powell’s 56-foot Reel Justice was among them. As a former co-owner of detention center operator PA Child Care, Powell is indirectly linked to the case against the judges. Powell moved the yacht at the end of a dispute in which the marina operators tried to oust the boat from Slip 50, alleging violations of the marina’s rules and regulations.

Images of leisure

By water, it’s a short trip on the Intracoastal to the Jupiter Inlet and out to the Atlantic Ocean.

By land, it’s a shorter drive to the beaches and parks along A1A, the two-lane road that hugs the coast. Breaks in the mangrove cover reveal the flat expanse of the ocean to the east.

High-rise condos and apartments at the edges of the road offer prime vantage points of where the sky and water appear to meet at the horizon.

Runners and bicyclists share the bike lanes on both sides of the roadway. Walkers on their own and trailing behind leashed dogs ply the sidewalks.

On the beaches in early February, people have set up chairs and sit wrapped in coats and blankets as protection against a stiff breeze.

In the water, surfers in wet suits slick as seal skin paddle through the breaking surf and wait to carve a ride through curling waves.

It’s a lifestyle many aspire to, but one the judges may have to postpone.

Jerry Lynott, a Times Leader staff writer, can be contacted at 570 829-7237.