Lawyers: Flood’s suspicions panned out

It’s easy to criticize former Luzerne County judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan now that the criminal charges against them are out, but they were still the kings of the courthouse when then-county controller Steve Flood challenged them over the detention center.

“Steve Flood was surrounded by corruption and stood up to it, and they did everything they could to hurt him,” said West Chester attorney Sam Stretton, who was Flood’s solicitor when he unsuccessfully attempted to subpoena the judges and others to obtain answers about the PA Child Care juvenile detention center.

Some lawyers privately supported Flood’s efforts but acted like they didn’t know him in public, saying they were afraid of retribution from the two judges, Stretton said. Many county employees and politicians tried to portray him as a nut case who spun wild conspiracy theories, he said.

“They were trying to make him look like a fool,” said county minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban, one of the few county officials who publicly supported Flood’s efforts to get to the truth about the center.

Scranton attorney Christopher Cullen, who was county retirement board solicitor when Flood was on that board, remembers Ciavarella’s highly publicized threats to put Flood in jail when he wasn’t at a January 2004 court hearing about the employee pension fund. Flood said he was in Florida on vacation when the subpoena was delivered to his office.

Cullen said it’s worth noting that Flood had already started to challenge the PA Child Care center in Pittston Township by then.

A federal indictment filed Wednesday accuses Conahan and Ciavarella of receiving $2.8 million in improper payments in exchange for actions that benefited the center. The men had already pleaded guilty to accepting the money. The indictment was filed after the former judges withdrew their guilty pleas on Aug. 24.

In May 2003, Flood had discovered and halted PA Child Care’s secret arrangement to buy less expensive food from the county prison. He said the county wasn’t a “catering service.”

Flood had also publicly challenged over-budget juvenile placement lodging costs in September 2003, particularly a $406,000 bill for housing juveniles at the PA Child Care Center.

Urban said he vividly recalls sheriffs being ordered to chaperone Flood during a lunch break when he returned from Florida to testify in the 2004 pension fund hearing before Ciavarella.

“I think Ciavarella had a problem with him because he was questioning the judges,” Urban said. “Steve was a Democrat. He was supposed to be playing along with the game, and he didn’t.”

The 2004 decision by county Commissioner Greg Skrepenak and former commissioner Todd Vonderheid to lease the center for $58 million over 20 years sent Flood into high gear. He held public hearings, released a critical state audit about the center and peppered Skrepenak and Vonderheid with questions at commissioner meetings. Skrepenak almost ejected Flood from one of the meetings.

Stretton said Flood continued to dig deeper into Conahan, Ciavarella and one of the center owners, Robert Powell, who has since pleaded guilty for failing to report the former judges’ crimes.

“I sent a private investigator down to Florida at Flood’s request and expense,” Stretton said.

The investigator obtained information about the Jupiter, Fla., condominium owned by Ciavarella, Conahan and their wives, Stretton said. The investigator, who since died, also gathered other evidence for Flood’s investigation, including details about Powell’s yacht, he said.

Stretton said Flood shared his findings with investigatory agencies, which leads him to believe that Flood helped bring the indictment to fruition.

Cullen also hinted that Flood was onto some of the detention center information revealed by authorities this year.

“He lit the fuse. There’s no question about it. All of what’s coming out now, he had been at its core,” Cullen said.

Flood’s motive was public service because his county work took him away from his profitable businesses of selling antiques and lobsters, Stretton said. He questions whether the stress ultimately contributed to Flood’s stroke on March 14, 2007.

Flood has been unable to communicate since the stroke. He had been at a commissioners’ meeting complaining about the detention center lease hours before his stroke.

“Steve was a hero. You had to be there to see the pressure that was on him,” Stretton said.

Treasurer’s office employee Dave Muroski said he has been thinking of Flood lately in light of the federal charges against Conahan, Ciavarella and others. Muroski, who was controller deputy under Flood, had a front row seat for Flood’s frequent press conferences about alleged county wrongdoing.

“Some of the stuff that he said and people he accused was kind of unbelievable. He must have had some awfully good information at the time,” Muroski said. “It almost all turned out to be true.”