Luzerne County Judges

By Matt Hughes mhughes@timesleader.com
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SCRANTON – Attorneys for former Luzerne County judge Mark Ciavarella filed a legal brief Monday answering the government’s response to Ciavarella’s pretrial motions.

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Ciavarella

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Ciavarella’s lawyers again requested that his trial be moved out of state and that a different judge be assigned to his case.

Ciavarella’s lawyers initially filed pretrial motions on March 15. Federal prosecutors responded May 11 with a brief opposing Ciavarella’s requests for a change of venue and judge.

Ciavarella is awaiting trial on charges that he accepted money to direct county contracts and juvenile court defendants to two for-profit juvenile detention centers. Media coverage of the case, including the labeling of the case as a “kids for cash” scandal, “places Ciavarella’s fate into the hands of a lynch mob,” the brief claims. The label, “kids for cash,” has further misrepresented the facts of the charges against Ciavarella, the brief states.

The brief further adds that publicity about the case “extends far beyond the geographic boundaries of Luzerne and Lackawanna County,” creating hostility throughout the 33-county Middle District of Pennsylvania from which jurors will be selected.

The brief argues that pretrial questioning of jurors will prove inadequate in identifying prospective jurors “seeking to exact their own form of vigilante justice.”

Ciavarella’s lawyers, Al Flora Jr. and William Ruzzo, refer to a study conducted on his behalf as evidence of extensive bias in the district from which jurors be selected. They are requesting that his trial be moved to Delaware, where potential jurors know less about the case and are less solidified in their alleged bias against Ciavarella.

Ciavarella also is calling for the recusal of presiding Judge Edwin M. Kosik over statements he made to the media.

The brief claims Kosik’s statements, published in the Citizens’ Voice newspaper in August 2009, reflect a personal belief that Ciavarella and former Luzerne County judge Michael Conahan “prostituted their judicial office by incarcerating children for money.”

A date has not yet been set for Ciavarella’s trial.

Matt Hughes is a Times Leader reporter. You may reach him at 829-7210 or email him at mhughes@timesleader.com