DOCSLIB.ORG

“I Wanted Them to Be Scared out of Their Minds.”

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
“I Wanted Them to Be Scared out of Their Minds.” “I Wanted Them To Be Scared Out Of Their Minds.” – Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Presented by: SenArt Films www.KidsForCashTheMovie.com Runtime: 102 minutes Press notes as of: 1/13/14 PRESS NOTES CONTACTS ........................................................................................................ 3 ABOUT THE STORY ............................................................................................. 4 ABOUT THE PRODUCTION .................................................................................... 5 ABOUT THE KIDS .............................................................................................. 12 ABOUT THE FILMMAKER ..................................................................................... 15 CREDITS .......................................................................................................... 17 KIDS_FOR_CASH_Press_Kit_011314.docx Page 2 of 25 CONTACTS Press Contacts: New York - Los Angeles - Philadelphia/Pittsburgh/Erie- Emma Griffiths Sylvia Desrochers Michael Foell Emma Griffiths PR Big Time PR & Marketing Lisa Jefferson (917)-806-0599 - Cell (424) 208-3496 - Office Jesse Cute [email protected] (213)-840-2309 - Cell Allied Integrated Marketing [email protected] 2001 Market St., Ste. 510, Issue Related Press - Philadelphia, PA 19103 Marie Yeager Northeast Pennsylvania - (215) 496-0675 - Office Roda Creative Services Ruth Corcoran [email protected] (717) 699-2206 - Office Corcoran Communications [email protected] (717) 817-3333 - Cell 410 Crescent Road [email protected] [email protected] Wilkes Barre PA 18702 (570) 472-0365 – Office (570) 881-4172- Cell [email protected] Exhibitor Contact: Domestic Theatrical - Domestic Digital - Mark Urman Steve Beckman Amanda Sherwin Scott Kaplan SenArt Films Releasing Film Buff (212) 337-9500 (212) 463-6403 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Sales Agents: Domestic - International - John Sloss Annie Roney Linzee Troubh Roco Films International Cinetic Media (415) 332-6471 (212) 627-9898 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] SenArt Films Releasing, Inc. For more information: Jenny Kranson (212) 406-9610 ext 351 fax 212-406-9610 [email protected] KIDS_FOR_CASH_Press_Kit_011314.docx Page 3 of 25 ABOUT THE STORY KIDS FOR CASH is a riveting look behind the notorious scandal that rocked the nation. Beginning in the wake of the shootings at Columbine, a small town in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania elected a charismatic judge who was hell-bent on keeping kids in line. Under his reign, over 3,000 children were ripped from their families and imprisoned for years for crimes as petty as creating a fake MySpace page. When one parent dared to question this harsh brand of justice, it was revealed that the judge had received millions of dollars in payments from the privately-owned juvenile detention centers where the kids—most of them only in their early teens—were incarcerated. Exposing the hidden scandal behind the headlines, KIDS FOR CASH unfolds like a real- life thriller. Charting the previously untold stories of the masterminds at the center of the scandal, the film reveals a shocking American secret told from the perspectives of the villains, the victims and the unsung heroes who helped uncover the scandal. In a major dramatic coup, the film features extensive, exclusive access to the judges behind the scheme. KIDS_FOR_CASH_Press_Kit_011314.docx Page 4 of 25 ABOUT THE PRODUCTION KIDS FOR CASH is a riveting, non-fiction thriller about a judicial scandal that shocked America when it catapulted to the headlines in January of 2009. Set in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania, the film is an absorbing account of the serpentine events leading up to the scandal, as well as a richly detailed chronicle of the often-incredible revelations unearthed by the criminal investigation and extensive media coverage. Blending greed, corruption, betrayal of trust, abuse of power, and wrongful imprisonment in a manner almost novelistic in its twists and turns, it is one of those true stories that is, as the saying goes, “stranger than fiction.” But, what leaves an indelible impression on those who are initially attracted to the tale’s more sensational aspects is the fact that the victims of the corruption in question—all 3,000 of those who were betrayed, abused, and wronged—were children. Ironically, what caused the furor was not the fact that wholesale incarceration of adolescents and teens--most for non-violent crimes--had been taking place in Luzerne County for a number of years. Rather, it was the discovery that two of the presiding judges in the district—prominent and popular judges—had allegedly received more than $2.8 million in bribes (or, as they called them, “finder’s fees”), for sentencing these unfortunate children to privately-owned juvenile detention centers where some of them would remain for years. Almost immediately, the case came to be known as the “Kids for Cash” scandal because it appeared that the judges, Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, had literally been selling these kids “up the river” for their own monetary gain. The story attained such notoriety that when producer-director Robert May decided to make a film about it, the title KIDS FOR CASH was the only logical choice. In a twist of fate, May, the producer of several acclaimed and honored documentaries, including the Oscar-winning “The Fog of War,” happens to make his home in the very region where the scandal erupted. As he recalls it, “my producing partner, Lauren Timmons, and I were in the midst of an extended story retreat on a fiction project when the scandal broke. Each day, we would pick up the local and national papers and read about what was happening right where I live. I was stunned to learn that these judges were accused of such heinous crimes involving children, especially since I probably voted for both of them!” May had never met either judge and admits he didn’t know much about them. What he does recall were their reputations. “I was aware,” he observes, “that both were celebrated within the community, and I knew that Ciavarella had campaigned on a zero-tolerance for crime platform which, at the time, I thought was a great thing.” May, like many other citizens of the post-Columbine school shooting era, believed that the only way to keep schools safe for his own children (who were 10 and 13 in 2009), was to strictly enforce regulations, and separate the “good” kids from the “bad” ones. “Prior to my immersion in this story,” he adds, “one of my own misconceptions was ‘if you do an adult crime, you should do adult time.’ I believed, like most other parents, that warning children about the dire consequences of doing something wrong would somehow keep them from doing it (i.e., ‘Just Say No!’), and I thought that having ‘zero tolerance’ for bad behavior would somehow motivate them to stay out of certain kinds KIDS_FOR_CASH_Press_Kit_011314.docx Page 5 of 25 of trouble. I actually believed that we could ‘scare them straight,’ and make them so afraid of getting punished that they would do anything to avoid it.” Judge Ciavarella was the very embodiment of these principles, and everyone, from police, to educators and school administrators, to the community at large, was aware of his policies and, in fact, embraced them. In January of 2009, when the federal government announced that Judges Ciavarella and Conahan agreed to plead guilty to “Honest Services Fraud” and “Tax Matters” for accepting the so-called “finder’s fees,” people were forced to see things in a new light. “It was only then,” May notes, “when money came into the picture, that the community questioned Ciavarella’s motivations for his widely-adopted policies. No one suspected corruption of this kind.” May recalls, “The community was shocked.” Such was the impact, that the scandal prompted an endless flow of front-page stories. “Newspapers were selling at rates not seen in decades,” May remembers. “It was the lead story all over television, and the all-news radio station in the area was suddenly overtaking the music stations in ratings.” The story began to spread beyond Luzerne County, and national and international media started to cover it as well, with some outlets calling it “the most egregious judicial scandal in history.” Like everyone else, May was riveted. “What became clear,” he says, “was that this was no typical ‘small town scandal,’ and what made it different from other judicial scandals was that this one involved children.” “For Lauren and me,” he continues, “the story of these children was a natural. They were the victims of whatever scheme or master plan had been developed by these two judges--judges who had been celebrated, elected by the community, and then revealed to be evil. When you ask yourself, ‘what kind of person would literally trade children for cash?’ you think of the sort of nefarious characters found in a Charles Dickens tale, or perhaps the darkest, most chilling crime stories, ‘ripped from the headlines,’ as the expression goes. A juvenile court judge accused of getting paid for every child he incarcerates? Yes, Dickens could have made this up, but instead, the story was unfolding right before our eyes, in real life.” Even though everyone was talking about this so-called “Kids for Cash” scandal, May noticed that few people were actually discussing how it could have happened. “How could such upstanding pillars of the community sink to such a low level?” he asked himself. “Was the entire community in on it? Could it be that the police were in on it, and the schools? Were they all making money on the backs of children? How could all of this happen without anyone catching on?” May needed to find answers to these questions and, as he recalls it, “from that moment on, the fiction film we’d been working on became less and less of our focus.” Clearly, he and Timmons had gotten hooked by the “Kids for Cash” scandal--not just as citizens, but as storytellers. They began to see it as a potential subject for a feature film; one that could capture an audience’s imagination just as it had captured their own.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Lessons from Luzerne County: Promoting Fairness, Transparency and Accountability
    Lessons from Luzerne County: Promoting Fairness, Transparency and Accountability Recommendations to the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice Acknowledgements Investigating and preparing recommendations for reform in the wake of the Luzerne County scandal has been an enormous undertaking. The scandal is about more than “judicial corruption.” Its unveiling has revealed layers of issues, both simple and complicated. Juvenile Law Center has learned from our investigations, and from that of the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice. We have spent many months developing our recommendations, with the hope that such a scandal will never happen again. We needed help to complete this project—which we hope will not only benefit Pennsylvania children, but those whose lives are touched by the juvenile justice system across the country. Fortunately, help was available from many sources. We thank the many volunteer lawyers and law students who provided invaluable assistance by researching and compiling information for these reports. In particular, we would like to thank Adam Brown, Lesli Esposito, Kate Frenzinger, Richard Gruenberger, Peter Lindau and John Huh of DLA Piper; Christopher Burdett, Mark DiPerna, France Jaffe, Alice Jensen, and Suzanne Turner of Dechert LLP; Amanda Harber of Rutgers School of Law – Camden; and David Lapp of Education Law Center-PA. We also acknowledge Juvenile Law Center staff and interns who contributed to this report through their writing, editing, proofreading, and cite-checking, in particular Riya S. Shah, who shepherded this effort, as well as Andrew Kromer, Robert G. Schwartz, Marsha L. Levick, Emily Keller, Neha Desai, Katherine Burdick, Kristina Moon, Terry Schuster, Rosie McNamara-Jones, Jessica Jones, and James Wang.
    [Show full text]
  • Models for Change Summary
    News Summary February 18 –March 4, 2011 Pennsylvania Summary Associated Press (AP) – Allentown Bureau ‘Pa. judge guilty of racketeering in kickback case’ – February 18, 2011 Posted on: http://pottsmerc.com/articles/2011/02/18/news/doc4d5ee937a6cd9029458749.txt A former juvenile court judge was convicted Friday of racketeering in a case that accused him of sending youth offenders to for-profit detention centers in exchange for millions of dollars in illicit payments from the builder and owner of the lockups… The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) ‘Law seeks to correct its wrongs’ – February 19, 2011 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Law_seeks_to_correct_its_wrongs_02-18-2011.html State Sen. Lisa Baker said the verdicts in the Mark Ciavarella corruption trial “confirm what our community has painfully learned over two years.”…Baker, R-Lehman Twp., has launched a push for juvenile justice reform by introducing a series of bills to protect the fundamental rights of kids entering the system… The Morning Call (Allentown) ‘Ciavarella had some help perpetrating his crimes’ – February 19, 2011 http://articles.mcall.com/2011-02-19/news/mc-paul-carpenter-ciavarella-20110219_1_juvenile-law- center-ciavarella-and-conahan-judge-mark-ciavarella Justice, a word that probably is not in former so-called Judge Mark Ciavarella's vocabulary, has finally been served. Ciavarella was convicted Friday on 12 federal counts involving a scheme in Luzerne County to put thousands of children in commercial juvenile detention facilities in return for millions in payoffs from the operators of the facilities…As early as 2005, the Supremes, responsible for the integrity of all courts in the state, were informed that something very bad was happening in Luzerne County.
    [Show full text]
  • In the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
    IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA H.T. ET AL., CONSOLIDATED Civil Action No. 3:09-cv-0286 Plaintiffs, JURY TRIAL DEMANDED v. AMENDED MARK A. CIAVARELLA, JR. ET AL., MASTER COMPLAINT – FOR CLASS ACTIONS Defendants. (Civil Action No. 3:09-cv-0357) ------------------------------------------------ WILLIAM CONWAY ET AL., (Civil Action No. 3:09-cv-0291) Plaintiffs, v. JUDGE: A. RICHARD MICHAEL T. CONAHAN ET AL., CAPUTO Defendants. [ELECTRONICALLY FILED] AMENDED MASTER COMPLAINT – FOR CLASS ACTIONS INTRODUCTION 1. With utter disdain for the rule of law, defendants Mark A. Ciavarella, Jr. and Michael T. Conahan, in combination and conspiracy with other defendants named herein, have collectively perpetrated, through their acts and omissions, what ranks as one of the largest and most serious violations of children’s rights in the history of the American legal system. Both in its duration, spanning approximately five years between 2003 and 2008 – and its magnitude, inflicting damage on the lives of thousands of children and their families – the scope of defendants’ unlawful scheme is profoundly shocking. In choosing to treat children as commodities that could be traded for cash, the defendants have placed an indelible stain on the Luzerne County juvenile justice system. 2. Specifically, defendants Ciavarella and Conahan engaged for years in a brazen scheme to accept financial kickbacks from defendants Powell, Mericle, and others in exchange for placing children appearing before Ciavarella in residential
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT Private Prisons in the United States: Success That Has
    ABSTRACT Private Prisons in the United States: Success That Has Yet to Be Seen Megan T. Short Director: Carson Mencken, Ph.D. ` Private prisons have been a hot topic of political debate since their official conception in the late-twentieth century in the United States. The intent behind privatizing a field that has historically been regulated by the government was to reduce budgetary expenditures and improve cost efficiency without sacrificing the quality of these institutions. Since then, private prisons’ abilities to meet those goals have been widely questioned and researched. In this thesis, I review the history of prisons and how privatization was established in the United States. I then analyze the body of research surrounding the quality and cost-effectiveness of the private facilities, and I determine that this research is largely inconclusive regarding the success of private institutions. For private prisons to be useful in the field of crime and punishment, they need to be evidently and undoubtedly superior to their public counterparts. Therefore, I propose that more research needs to be done with greater sample sizes, and this research can only be done if private prisons are legally required to be more forthcoming with their financial records. Until then, it cannot be determined whether private prisons are meeting and/or exceeding their contractual obligations to the government. APPROVED BY DIRECTOR OF HONORS THESIS: ________________________________________________ Dr. Carson Mencken, Department of Sociology APPROVED BY THE HONORS PROGRAM: ________________________________________________ Dr. Andrew Wisely, Interim Director DATE: _________________________ PRIVATE PRISONS IN THE UNITED STATES: SUCCESS THAT HAS YET TO BE SEEN A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Baylor University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Honors Program By Megan T.
    [Show full text]
  • Ciavarella Summary Judgment Memorandum
    Case 3:09-cv-00286-ARC Document 1510 Filed 01/09/14 Page 1 of 23 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA FLORENCE WALLACE, et al., Plaintiffs, CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:09-cv-286 v. ROBERT J. POWELL, et al., (JUDGE CAPUTO) Defendants. ****************************************************************************************************** IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA WILLIAM CONWAY, et al., Plaintiffs, CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:09-cv-0291 v. MICHAEL T. CONAHAN, et al., (JUDGE CAPUTO) Defendants. ****************************************************************************************************** IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA H.T., et al., Plaintiffs, CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:09-cv-0357 v. (JUDGE CAPUTO) MARK A. CIAVARELLA, JR., et al., Defendants. ****************************************************************************************************** Case 3:09-cv-00286-ARC Document 1510 Filed 01/09/14 Page 2 of 23 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA SAMANTHA HUMANIK, Plaintiff, CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:09-cv-0630 v. (JUDGE CAPUTO) MARK A. CIAVARELLA, JR., et al., Defendants. ****************************************************************************************************** IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA RAUL CLARK, et al., Plaintiffs, CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:09-cv-0357 v. (JUDGE CAPUTO) MICHAEL T. CONAHAN, et al., Defendants. *****************************************************************************************************
    [Show full text]
  • Kids for Cash”
    SELLING KIDS SHORT: HOW “RIGHTS FOR KIDS” TURNED INTO “KIDS FOR CASH” Martin Guggenheim∗ and Randy Hertz+ INTRODUCTION The opportunity to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the founding of Juvenile Law Center (JLC)—and the remarkable career of its cofounder, Bob Schwartz, who is stepping down as its Executive Director after forty years of service—is a dream for law professors like us, who specialize in juvenile justice. It provides us with a natural context for reflecting on the peaks and valleys of juvenile justice during the forty-year period in which JLC has worked prodigiously and tirelessly to protect individual children and to establish broad- based protections for youth.1 In this Article, we will use one of JLC’s many victories, the case of the so- called “kids for cash” scandal of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in 2008–2009, to look at the current state of juvenile justice and to look back at how we got here. This was a case so bizarre and shocking that it is still difficult to believe it could have happened, let alone that it could have taken place in the modern era. Over the course of roughly a decade, two judges in the western part of Pennsylvania made millions of dollars by wrongfully imprisoning more than 1,800 children in a private juvenile prison that kicked money back to the judges.2 Section I of this Article recounts the story. It is a tale with a hero (JLC, which came to the rescue of the kids, as it has in so many other cases), a couple of villains (the judges, of course), and a large backup cast of prosecutors, defenders, probation officers, and others who apparently turned a blind eye to flagrant abuses that occurred regularly over the span of many years.
    [Show full text]
  • ‌Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice.Pdf
    INTERBRANCH COMMISSION ON JUVENILE JUSTICE Report ON ISSI O M N M J O U C V E N H I C L L E E N N A A J J R R U U B B S S R R T T E E I I C C T T E E N N I I ★ MAY 2010 e record of the commission's hearings is available on the Web site of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System at: http://www.pacourts.us/Links/Public/InterbranchCommissionJuvenileJustice.htm ★ HON . J OHN M. CLELAND , C HAIR e Honorable Edward G. Rendell e Honorable Ronald D. Castille TOD C. A LLEN Governor of Pennsylvania Chief Justice of Pennsylvania VALERIE BENDER e Honorable Dominic Pileggi e Honorable Robert J. Mellow KENNETH J. H OROHO , J R., E SQUIRE Majority Leader Democratic Leader Senate of Pennsylvania Senate of Pennsylvania HON . J AMES A. G IBBONS JASON J. L EGG , E SQUIRE e Honorable Todd A. Eachus e Honorable Samuel H. Smith Majority Leader Republican Leader ROBERT L. L ISTENBEE , E SQUIRE Pennsylvania House of Representatives Pennsylvania House of Representatives GEORGE D. M OSEE , J R., E SQUIRE e Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice was created last August with a HON . J OHN C. U HLER mandate to investigate the juvenile justice scandal in Luzerne County and to develop appropriate recommendations for reform. Since then we have held eleven days of RONALD P. WILLIAMS hearings and received testimony from sixty-eight witnesses, some more than once. HON . D WAYNE D. WOODRUFF In the attached report we have developed a comprehensive account of what occurred DARREN BRESLIN , E SQUIRE in the courtrooms of Luzerne County.
    [Show full text]
  • Directed Study Juvenile Justice Pipeline from Elementary School To
    Directed Study Juvenile Justice Pipeline from Elementary School to Prison In The United States of America By James S. Paicopolos Introduction Teaching practices and child behavior management policy and practices both at home and in School in the United States have been unable or contribute to the United States having the highest incarceration rate in the world. Some schools not been a pipeline from elementary school to prison. These schools tend to be far from the inner city schools, and located in wealthy school districts. However, in many inner city school districts, the hard line taken toad elementary school students cannot be understated, as contributing to the conduit from school to prison. Hispanic and Black children, tend to reside in the inner city schools, in locations where there is a high rate of incarceration. "The school to prison pipeline” has many factors. To protect children from real danger from intruders, there are downs and makes the school begin to look more like a prison, where the "inmates" cannot leave and are isolated from the regular population. Disruptive Children are often given drugs, to control their behavior, which also serves as a chemical restraint. Just today, I heard from a parent complaining about her 7 year old not being able to control his behavior even though he was taking Ritalin 20 mg in the morning and 10 mg in the afternoon. He had originally begun taking this medication to manage his behavior. Yet the drugs, according to his mother was not effective in controlling this child’s behavior. The policies, which occur in some schools, end up having some school programs, being more like a jail than a school.
    [Show full text]
  • Crafting an Exception to Absolute Judicial Immunity
    GIVING NEW MEANING TO “JUSTICE FOR ALL”: CRAFTING AN EXCEPTION TO ABSOLUTE JUDICIAL IMMUNITY Brittney Kern 2014 MICH.ST.L.REV.149 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION............................................................................... 150 I. ABSOLUTE JUDICIAL IMMUNITY THROUGH THE YEARS ......... 153 A. Origins of Absolute Judicial Immunity........................... 154 B. Modern Case Law Featuring Absolute Judicial Immunity......................................................................... 158 1. Stump v. Sparkman................................................... 159 2. Forrester v. White ..................................................... 161 3. Mireles v. Waco........................................................ 163 II. THE DUTY OF JUDGES TO ACT ETHICALLY ............................. 165 A. Historical Background of the Model Code of Judicial Conduct ........................................................................... 166 B. The Current State of the Model Code of Judicial Conduct ........................................................................... 169 1. General Impropriety ................................................. 170 2. Judicial Bias ............................................................. 171 3. Extrajudicial Financial Compensation..................... 173 III. THE NEED TO RECONSIDER ABSOLUTE JUDICIAL IMMUNITY . 175 A. An Exception to Absolute Judicial Immunity ................. 176 1. Sanctionable Activity ................................................ 177 2. Malicious Intent.......................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Report to the General Assem.Bly, Governor Edward G
    Ho:\. JOHN M. CLELA~J), CHAIR The Honorable Edward G. Rendell The Honorable Ronald D. Castille TaD C. ALLEN Governor ofPennsylvania ChiefJus tice ofPennsylvania VALERIE BE~J)ER The Honorable Dominic Pileggi The Honorable Robert J. Mellow KICNNETH 1. HOROHO, JR., ESQUIRf. Majority Leader Democratic Leader Senate of Pennsylvania Senate ofPennsylvania Ho:\. JA:VII,S A. GJJJBONS JASON J. LE(;(;. ESQUIRF. The Honorable Todd A. Eachus The Honorable Samuel H. Smith Majority Leader Republican Leader ROBERT L. L!STENBEE, ESQUl1(E Pennsylvania House ofRepresentatives Pennsylvania House ofRepresentatives GEOI(C;I' D. [v'lOSEE, JR., ESQUIRE The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice was created last August with a Ho,\. JOliN C. UHI.ER mandate to investigate the juvenile justice scandal in Luzerne County and to develop appropriate recommendations for reform. Since then we have held eleven days of RU:\ALll P. Wll.L1AMS hearings and received testimony from sixty-eight witnesses, some more than once. Ho,\. DWA'NIi D. WOOIWIJW In the attached report we have developed a comprehensive account ofwhat occurred DARREN BRESLlN. ESQUIRE in the courtrooms of Luzerne County. It is our hope that based on our understanding COMMISSJ()N COUNSEl. ofhow the juvenile justice system was undermined in one county we have developed recommendations that will avoid it from happening in any other county. \Vhile the tragic events in Luzerne County have drawn criticism nationwide, and rightly so, it is also true that Pennsylvania is an acknowledged national leader in the field ofjuvenile justice. r111e outstanding commitment ofour juvenile court judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, probation officers, victim advocates and service providers should not be overshadowed by the actions of those who have damaged that reputation.
    [Show full text]
  • Case: 3:09-Cv-286 As Of: 06/29/2018 04:37 PM EDT 1 of 341
    Case: 3:09-cv-286 As of: 06/29/2018 04:37 PM EDT 1 of 341 LEAD,MM,SCR United States District Court Middle District of Pennsylvania (Scranton) CIVIL DOCKET FOR CASE #: 3:09−cv−00286−ARC Wallace v. Powell et al Date Filed: 02/12/2009 Assigned to: Honorable A. Richard Caputo Jury Demand: Both Related Cases: 3:09−cv−00357−ARC Nature of Suit: 440 Civil Rights: Other 3:09−cv−00291−ARC Jurisdiction: Federal Question 3:09−cv−00630−ARC 3:09−cv−02535−ARC 3:10−cv−00797−ARC 3:10−cv−01405−ARC Cause: 42:1983 Civil Rights Act Plaintiff Florence Wallace represented by David S. Senoff Individually and on behalf of all others Anapol Weiss similarly situated and as the parent of One Logan Square B.W., a minor, on behalf of her daughter 130 N. 18th St. individually and on behalf of all others Suite 1600 similarly situated. Philadelphia, PA 19103 215−735−1130 Email: [email protected] LEAD ATTORNEY ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED Lauren C. Fantini Caroselli Beachler McTiernan & Conboy 1845 Walnut Street 15th Floor Philadelphia, PA 19103 215.609.1350 Email: [email protected] LEAD ATTORNEY ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED Michael J. Cefalo Cefalo & Associates 309 Wyoming Avenue West Pittston, PA 18643 570−655−5555 Fax: 6555100 Email: [email protected] LEAD ATTORNEY ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED Richard C. DeFrancesco Caroselli Beachler McTiernan & Conboy 1845 Walnut Street 15th Philadelphia, PA 19103 215.609.1350 Email: [email protected] LEAD ATTORNEY ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED William R. Caroselli Caroselli, Beachler, McTiernan & Conboy LLC 20 Stanwix Street 7th Floor Case: 3:09-cv-286 As of: 06/29/2018 04:37 PM EDT 2 of 341 Pittsburgh, PA 15222 412−391−9860 Email: [email protected] LEAD ATTORNEY ATTORNEY TO BE NOTICED Barry H.
    [Show full text]
  • ‌November 9, 2009.Pdf
    INTERBRANCH COMMISSION ON JUVENILE JUSTICE Opening Statement of the Hon. John M. Cleland, Commission Chair November 9, 2009 Good afternoon. I am John Cleland, a judge of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania and Chairman of the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice. Today, ten weeks after being organized, and nearly eleven months after the original indictments against Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella were returned by the United States Attorney, this Commission begins our hearings here in Wilkes Barre. Many of you might be aware of the work we have already done over the last two and a half months. Perhaps you may have read in the newspaper about the hearing we held in Harrisburg last month or may even have watched it on television. But before we begin to hear from the witnesses who have been called to testify during the next two days it is important to keep in mind the purpose of this Commission’s work. The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice was created by the three branches of state government: the judiciary, the legislature, and the executive. We have been directed to conduct a noncriminal investigation into the failure of the juvenile justice system, to take steps designed to restore public confidence in the administration of justice, and to make recommendations to avoid a repeat of such a breakdown elsewhere in Pennsylvania. Our focus is on the juvenile justice system. We are not blind to the fact that as events have unfolded during the last year, there have been investigations and indictments that have extended far beyond what went on within the confines of Mark Ciavarella’s courtroom.
    [Show full text]