For anyone who loves children, justice and harbors any belief in the promise of America hidden deep within their soul, far from the cynical exterior we show the world, this one will bring a smile to your jaundiced eye. From the New York Times via Doug Berman, District Court Judge Edwin Kosik of the Middle District of Pennsylvania decided to reject the sweet plea deal cut by state court judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan.
Those names strike a bell, don’t they? Just in case anyone has forgotten, which would be a tragedy in itself, let me remind you just who these two individuals are, and why their names must be remembered. These were the two Pennsylvania judges who sold children into prison, making millions in kickbacks. Children, without prior histories of wrong and whose misconduct was often trivial, expected a stern lecture from the court and instead were hauled away to a private juvenile detention facility. The take was $2.6 million.
The government, which doesn’t flinch when it puts a poverty stricken mother who turns mule to feed her starving children behind bars for 121 months, offered a plea to 87 months for the two titans of the law, substantially below the guidelines. In lay terms, that means they would be out in less than 6 years at worst. And even with this sweet deal, the arrogant scum tried to bully their way through the Pre-Sentence Investigation Report, refusing to explain their motivations, denying critical facts and refusing to accept responsibility beyond how terribly this affected them.
How wrong was this deal? Well, let’s see how it stacks up on the Bernie Scale. They racked up a potential 2,183 children wrongfully sent to jail. How much is a child’s life, a child’s belief in fairness and a child’s expectation that their society won’t abuse them so mercilessly, worth when compared to pensions and college funds for the grandkids? Bernie took 150 years. These scum get a deal for 87 months.
To his enormous credit, Judge Kosik wouldn’t play ball. He rejected the plea.
In a highly critical order, issued Friday, Judge Edwin M. Kosik of Federal District Court in Scranton, Pa., said he based his decision on the comments and conduct of the two men after they entered guilty pleas to serve 87 months in prison.Rejection of a plea agreement is a true rarity. Rarely will a judge second-guess the government’s notion of a proper deal. But this one was so offensive, so disgraceful, so utterly and inexplicably soft, that if ever the was a deal worthy of rejection, this was it. And these two arrogant pieces of trash did everything in their power to demonstrate their unworthiness of the government’s “mercy”, the very thing that they laughed at when they busily sent children to jail as they rang up their receipts on their judicial cash registers.
Judge Kosik said the presentence report prepared by probation officers found that Mr. Conahan “refused to discuss the motivation behind his conduct, attempted to obstruct and impede justice and failed to clearly demonstrate affirmative acceptance of responsibility with his denials and contradiction of evidence.”
“Defendant Ciavarella is less obstructive,” the judge continued, “but instead has resorted to public statements of remorse, more for his personal circumstances, yet he continues to deny what he terms ‘quid pro quo,’ his receipt of money as a finder’s fee, not withstanding the government’s abundance of evidence of his routine deprivation of children’s constitutional rights by commitments to private juvenile facilities he helped to create in return for a ‘finder’s fee’ in direct conflict with his judicial roles.”
The maximum sentence available for the crimes to which they pleaded guilty is 25 years. Based on the Bernie Scale, it still falls well below the proper sentence. But we don’t apply the Bernie Scale, though if ever a case cried out for retribution, this one does. Nonetheless, application of the proper sentencing considerations of §3553(a) would make a 10 year sentence about right to remind any other judge inclined to sell his robe, conduct all too easily concealed behind a law and order facade that would be applauded by the mindless throngs, think twice.
Upon rejection of the deal, the scoundrels have two options. They can withdraw their pleas and the case move forward to trial, or they can continue to sentence and the court will have a free hand to impose whatever sentence he believes proper. If ever a case called out for a good, well-publicized trial, this is it.
But here’s the problem. The same Assistant United States Attorneys who thought that 87 months for these crimes fit the bill will be the ones who would try these two despicable pieces of scum. Will they do so with the zeal they would bring to the man who downloaded cartoon porn, or would it be closer to the gentle way they treat cops who beat and taser perps? Which government will show up for trial?
These two judges, who were entrusted with the lives of children and sold them for a tidy profit, have done mindboggling harm to the belief that there is any justice to be found in the courthouse. Will the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania add insult to injury? Given the 87 month deal, I wouldn’t be the farm on our government doing the right thing.
Facing one of the gravest abuses of the publics’ trust ever, let’s see how the government deals with it. We’ve already got gutless court administrators and lawyers, both prosecution and defense, who have some explaining to do. How many more cogs in the machine will fail before this case is over?
But we thankfully have Judge Kosik, who refused to allow this case to just quietly fade away.
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Given just how terrible these two are, they’d better pray for very long prison sentences lest any of the parents prove not quite so gutless.
Okay, Scott, much as I hate long sentences, I have to say I agree with you on this one. But I have two points: where do you come up with the figure they would be out in 3 years on an 87 month sentence? Don’t they do about 87% if they get good time? And as for light sentences encouraged by the govt, how about the male guards who rape women in prison? A guy who raped at least 6 women in the FDC Philly got 4 months. Sickens me.
That was a typo on the 3 years, and it’s completely wrong. Thanks for picking that up.
As for male guards who rape women in prison, not to mention male police officers who rape women in the back seat. yup. But we deal with one at a time, or they all end up in a meaningless salad.
I bet they might even find some folks in prison who don’t think too highly of them. Of course, maybe they won’t have to go into general population. Maybe they can do their time at their private prison.
Scott, thank you for keeping a light on this one. I can’t help but notice the mainstream media reticence about giving this too much play. I think maybe just about everyone is so uncomfortable with the idea that this could happen that they’d just rather not think about it.
But like you say, it should be thought about. A lot. Especially by us, including judges and prosecuting attorneys. Because it’s more about us than anyone else, and I don’t mean anything in the nature of self-flattery or self importance, obviously.
The fact that this happened at all is pretty sobering, or ought to be. That’s putting it mildly, I guess. More like shameful. To all of us.
How about a little insult to injury here. It seems the State Supreme Court thinks that the judicial records of these cases should be destroyed! In the interest of “justice” of course. here is a link to the article . And here is a more in depth look over at PAL Weekly.
87 months is an outrage – the USA should be ashamed of himself for even suggesting such a lenient sentence with a straight face. This is a case where the max of 25 years should be applied – i cant think of a greater miscarriage of justice – Perhaps the 2 judges should get the death penalty – they damaged thousands of lives – they should get the max
Scott,
I don’t often agree with your posts, but you are correct on this. Those two judges were supposed to represent justice and provide a check against prosecution. Then railroaded kids who, not innocent, did not deserve to go to kiddie jail. That deal was a travesty. I really question the office of the USA in cutting this high profile case. Those two knew better and really need to be drop kicked into a dark hole someplace.