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By Ed Lewis elewis@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer
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WILKES-BARRE – Luzerne County Prothonotary Jill Moran on Tuesday declined to settle broadcast reports that she intends to resign from the row office seat she’s held since 2002.

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Moran said she had “no comment” to questions about the reports suggesting she resigned or is planning to resign. She said she has not submitted a letter to Gov. Ed Rendell, and that she was in the office on Tuesday.

Moran, a Democrat, was elected prothonotary in 2001 and won re-election in 2005. The row office handles civil lawsuits, protection from abuse orders and mortgage foreclosures. The prothonotary seat is open for election this year.

Moran declined to say if she will seek a third four-year term.

She also said “no comment” about her alleged involvement in connection with her business relationships with former judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan.

Moran is an attorney in the Hazleton-based law firm of attorney Robert Powell.

Powell’s relationship with Ciavarella and Conahan recently came under scrutiny after it was revealed they and Moran had current or former ties to W-Cat Inc., a real estate development company building a townhouse project in Wright Township.

Ciavarella and Conahan were charged last week with conspiring to impede the Internal Revenue Service in the collection of federal income taxes, and with having devised a scheme to defraud Luzerne County of honest services by concealing more than $2.6 million from January 2003 to April 2007.

Martin C. Carlson, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, said the alleged scheme involved the placement of juveniles in juvenile detention facilities formerly co-owned by Powell.

Payments were made to the judges in return for discretionary acts of the judges relating to the construction, expansion and operation of the juvenile facilities and to the placement of juveniles in those facilities, Carlson said.