Politicos implicate DA in judicial scandal

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

WILKES-BARRE – The Luzerne County Young Republicans have gone on the attack against District Attorney Jacqueline Musto Carroll, issuing a press release Thursday that criticizes her handling of the juvenile-justice scandal.

The release poses nine questions to Musto Carroll, most of which related to shortcomings within the District Attorney’s office cited by the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice, the special panel appointed to investigate the scandal involving former judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan.

Musto Carroll, a Democrat, is seeking a second term as district attorney. She faces attorney Stefanie Salavantis, a Republican who won a write-in spot on the general election ballot. Bob Zaruta, Young Republicans president, said Salavantis played no part in the creation or issuance of the press release.

Zaruta said the group issued the release because it wants to “clean house” of anyone who played a role, by commission or omission, in permitting the juvenile scandal to go on for so long.

“There were people who didn’t do their job. Jackie Musto Carroll is one of them. The commission’s report clearly supports that,” Zaruta said.

The Interbranch Commission investigated abuses of juveniles’ rights that led the state Supreme Court in 2009 to vacate the convictions of thousands of youths who appeared before Ciavarella.

The commission’s report, released in May 2010, faulted numerous people, including former Luzerne County District Attorney David Lupas, who is now a county judge, and Musto Carroll, who served as first assistant district attorney under Lupas.

The commission concluded that Lupas and Musto Carroll should have done more to ensure assistant district attorneys who appeared in juvenile court were better trained to spot abuses of juveniles’ rights.

The Young Republicans seized on that issue in their press release, asking Musto Carroll, “How can the residents of Luzerne County have any faith that you will not continue to abdicate your responsibility since you have already set abdication of responsibility as a precedent?”

Musto Carroll declined Friday to comment or address the questions in the release. She and Lupas have said assistant district attorneys never made them aware of concerns they had in juvenile court.