News

April 24, 2009

Luzerne County added to juvenile defendants’ lawsuit

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker tmorgan@timesleader.com
Law & Order Reporter

SCRANTON – The Juvenile Law Center has added Luzerne County as a defendant in its juvenile rights lawsuit, alleging county officials had an obligation to speak up to prevent former Judge Mark Ciavarella from violating juveniles’ right to have an attorney present at court hearings.

The amended suit, filed Thursday, claims the county is liable because representatives of the probation department, public defender’s and district attorney’s offices had a duty to ensure children’s due process rights were not being violated, but failed to do so.

State statistics previously gathered by the law center showed that more than 50 percent of juveniles who appeared before Ciavarella between 2005 and 2006 were not represented by an attorney.

The judge also failed to advise the children of the consequences of not having an attorney and to ensure that those who waived that right did so knowingly and voluntarily – a violation of the juvenile court rules that were established by the state.

“That Ciavarella was the presiding judge in the Luzerne County juvenile court does not excuse any county officials from complying with controlling United States Supreme Court law, Pennsylvania statutory law or Pennsylvania rules of juvenile court regarding plaintiff’s due process rights,” the suit says.

The center represents dozens of juveniles who allege they were improperly detained by Ciavarella so that he could enrich himself and others who had a financial interest in the PA Child Care juvenile detention center once owned by attorney Robert Powell.

The suit is one of four federal lawsuits pending against Ciavarella and numerous others who alleged to have been part of the scheme.

The suits stem from guilty pleas Ciavarella and former judge Michael Conahan entered in February to charges they accepted more than $2.6 million in kickbacks in exchange for rulings that benefited PA Child Care and a sister facility in western Pennsylvania.

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