Opinion

OUR OPINION: JUVENILES

November 1, 2009

Vacated cases vindicate justice

LIVES DISRUPTED. Dreams derailed. Parents’ hearts broken.

Sadly, these were the experiences of some of the thousands of juveniles sentenced by then-judge Mark Ciavarella during his 2003-08 reign of the county juvenile court system.

Under Ciavarella’s oversight, it apparently was common for a teenager and his/her parents to be told they did not need a lawyer, only to have the first-time offender hauled off to a detention center.

The teenagers’ crimes? Fighting with peers. Possession of a small amount of marijuana. Posting disparaging remarks about a school official on MySpace. If they were adults before a sentencing judge, they probably would have walked away with only a fine.

On Thursday the state Supreme Court took the correct step – its only option, really – to vacate the convictions of about 6,500 juveniles who appeared before Ciavarella since 2003. Only a hundred or so can be retried again – if the district attorney’s office pursues them.

The high court had to take a drastic and unprecedented step to restore the system’s integrity. When a judge blatantly and routinely ignores defendants’ constitutional rights to legal representation, presumption of innocence and due process, the system is tainted.

Without doubt, some of the teenagers Ciavarella judged deserved to be incarcerated. But now their juvenile records, which could impair education and employment opportunities, will be wiped clean. Let’s hope they make the best of this break.

Luzerne County will continue to pay a price, with its reputation tarnished and class-action suits pending.

Already the Wyoming Valley has been sullied. A respected legal publication, The ABA Journal, labeled its September article on Ciavarella’s self-serving brand of law “Town Without Pity,” in part because others in the court system did not take remedial action.

Others in the state also have questioned how this could happen.

But Ciavarella’s public persona was powerful. The former president judge proudly told community groups his zero tolerance was an effective, tough-love approach, one that some school officials applauded.

Federal officials now prosecuting him offer a different viewpoint: It was a love of easy money – kickbacks for incarcerating teenagers in two detention centers – that motivated him.

Unlike his young defendants, Ciavarella will be treated fairly and given a chance to explain and defend himself in open court. He likely will have a skilled lawyer at his side who will be free to argue for the defendant.

Thankfully, the disgraced court that Ciavarella allegedly operated with a network of cronies and smoke-and-mirror trickery is history.

And now that the smoke has cleared, hopefully all court officials will take steps to ensure constitutional rights of future defendants always are protected.

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