Kids-for-cash judges partly immune from suits

HARRISBURG - Two former Luzerne County judges accused of taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send juveniles to private detention facilities are partially immune from civil lawsuits, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled yesterday.

The decision by U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo could make it harder for the people suing former Judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. to collect damages.

Caputo said Ciavarella would avoid civil consequences for "the vast majority" of his conduct, because much of it occurred inside a courtroom, such as determination of delinquency and sentencing.

He said Conahan largely would not be immune, because his alleged actions were more administrative in nature, such as signing a placement agreement with the detention centers.

The decisions have no bearing on the federal criminal charges that Ciavarella and Conahan face in what has become known as the kids-for-cash scandal.

Marsha Levick, a lawyer with the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, a co-counsel for plaintiffs in the case, said she did not consider the ruling a major setback. There are more than 400 named plaintiffs in the case, and lawyers are seeking class-action status.

"I think what's important is the judges remained in the litigation," Levick said.

She said the plaintiffs could not appeal Caputo's decision at this point in the proceedings, although Conahan and Ciavarella could if they wanted to.

Both former judges are representing themselves in the lawsuit, and neither appeared to have a listed home phone number.

At the heart of the lawsuit and criminal case are claims that Ciavarella routinely violated the legal rights of juvenile defendants in his courtroom as part of a conspiracy with Conahan and others to funnel them into privately run detention centers. Authorities say the judges received about $2.8 million in kickbacks as a result.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has voided thousands of juvenile convictions Ciavarella issued.

The two former judges pleaded guilty in February to honest-services fraud and tax evasion in a deal with prosecutors that called for an 87-month sentence. But that plea bargain was voided in August when a federal judge decided the two were not accepting proper responsibility for their deeds.

Ciavarella and Conahan changed their pleas to not guilty and were later indicted on racketeering charges.