Officials mull suing two judges

Taxpayers are also victims in Luzerne County’s judicial corruption scandal, and county officials are exploring the possibility of a lawsuit to recoup damages.

County officials stress that they will only turn to litigation if there’s a solid legal argument and likelihood of obtaining money, especially if the county can’t find lawyers willing to take a suit on contingency.

County Solicitor Vito DeLuca said the administration has indicated it “doesn’t want to throw good money after bad.” Commissioners would have to vote before filing suit, he said.

One possible avenue is suing former judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan to recoup county funds spent on the placement and treatment of juveniles who will have their records erased by the state Supreme Court, DeLuca said.

Thousands of juveniles charged with certain minor offenses may fall into this category, in large part because they did not have legal representation when they appeared before Ciavarella.

“If these juveniles were detained unnecessarily and we paid to put them in placement, obviously taxpayers should recoup that money,” said Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla. “I think we should at least explore the possibility of recouping that money.”

DeLuca said more research is needed before pursuing this type of litigation because judges have immunity in acts performed as part of their duties.

This immunity doesn’t cover judges for acts performed off the bench, including administrative decisions, DeLuca said. That’s why another possibility is suing the former judges for conspiring to close the old county-owned detention center.

Conahan and Ciavarella are awaiting sentencing on guilty pleas for accepting $2.6 million in kickbacks in exchange for actions that led to the county’s use of privately-owned PA Child Care centers in Pittston Township and western Pennsylvania.

Shortly before the Pittston Township center’s opening in 2003, then-president judge Conahan announced that he would no longer send juveniles to the county-owned River Street detention center. Conahan stripped funding for the 16 county detention center workers from his budget and returned the county detention center license to the state, even though the state said the county-owned building met licensing requirements.

Minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban supports this type of suit, noting that the federal complaint against Conahan also revealed that he signed a placement guarantee agreement in January 2002 saying the court would pay PA Child Care $1.314 million a year in rent and that these payments "shall be absolute and unconditional."

A suit could recover the additional money that had to be spent on detention as a result of the closure of the county’s River Street facility, Urban said.

DeLuca said the county may have a strong case pursuing damages caused by the closure of the old center.

“It would be a valid cause of action, assuming we could show that there was a conspiratorial action taken by one or more defendants to force the county to have to go out and find another facility,” DeLuca said.

DeLuca said taxpayers may also have to foot some of the bill for litigation now that the county has been added as a defendant in one of three lawsuits filed in connection with the scandal involving the two former judges.

The county’s liability insurance would cover legal representation and damages up to $1 million or $2 million, but the county would be responsible for a $50,000 deductible and damages beyond the cap, Urban said.

County officials plan to argue that the county has no liability because judges are supervised by the state Supreme Court. Commissioners have no supervisory control over the judges and their policies.

Because the state also covered much of the cost of detention and placement, DeLuca said he will consult with state agencies to determine if they’d want to enjoin a county suit.

The two former judges aren’t the only potential targets of a suit, though DeLuca declined to name other possibilities.

“One of the main focuses of my research is to try to determine all the parties that may be liable because the more parties we could determine are liable to the county, the more likely we’d be able to recover something,” DeLuca said.

Commissioners would seek a law firm willing to represent the county at little or no cost in exchange for a percentage of any damages obtained, DeLuca said. If no firms bite, commissioners would have to weigh the cost of litigation against the likely recovery, he said.