Disqualification sought in suit

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker tmorgan@timesleader.comLaw & Order Reporter

Attorneys for one of the defendants being sued in connection with the juvenile scandal say they will seek to disqualify attorneys for the Juvenile Law Center from the case, alleging the attorneys are acting as “government informants.”

Bernard Schneider and Jonathan Vipond III, attorneys for Gregory Zappala, claim Marsha Levick and Lourdes Rosado of the JLC have provided information to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in connection with its criminal probe of the kickback scheme involving former judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, according to a case management plan filed in connection with the civil suits.

The plan, filed Monday, details the factual and legal issues that are in dispute in connection with four federal lawsuits, one of which was filed by the JLC, against Zappala and multiple other defendants.

The suits allege Zappala was part of a conspiracy that led Ciavarella, the county’s longtime juvenile court judge, to improperly detain juveniles in the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care juvenile detention centers that are owned by Zappala.

Ciavarella and former judge Michael Conahan pleaded guilty in February to accepting more than $2.6 million in kickbacks in exchange for rulings that benefited the two centers.

Schneider and Vipond allege Levick and Rosado should be barred from the civil case because they have been acting as “agents” of federal prosecutors. That’s a violation of Zappala’s right to be free from unlawful search and seizure, they say.

Levick on Monday called the allegation “laughable.”

“It’s so incredibly stupid I almost don’t want to dignify it with an answer,” Levick said. “The defendants have their backs against the wall. They will throw anything against the wall just to see if it will stick. It’s just a desperation move.”

Levick said she has not provided any information to authorities. Any information they did obtain came through public records the JLC has filed as part of its lawsuit or with a separate state court proceeding in which it sought to overturn rulings Ciavarella made in juvenile cases.

Schneider and Vipond did not return a phone message Monday. In the case management plan, the attorneys say they file a court action seeking to depose Levick and others from the JLC to see what information they turned over to prosecutors.

Schneider and Vipond indicated they also plan to argue that some, if not all, of the children involved in the cases were detained because they committed crimes that warranted their incarceration, and not because the defendants profited from their detention.

The defendants will seek to interview numerous people, including police officers, probation department workers, school officials, psychologists and any other persons who were involved in a given child’s case, to establish that.

The defendants further indicated they may join various county offices, including the district attorney’s and public defenders’ offices, as defendants in the cases.

In addition, defendants plan to file several pre-trial motions asking a judge to rule on various legal issues.

Among the issues:

• Determining whether the four cases, filed by separate teams of attorneys, will be combined into a single class-action suit. The plaintiff’s attorneys oppose the proposal while defendants support it.

• Determining whether some defendants are barred from taking part in the suits based on statute of limitations.

• Determining whether claims against certain defendants are barred based on governmental or judicial immunity.

Terrie Morgan-Besecker, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 570-829-7179.