Posted: Friday, 27 March 2009 11:50AM
Never Trade Justice For Injustice
Steve Corbett Reporting
Friday, March 27, 2009
Apologists for disgraced Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella continue to spin his sordid criminal behavior to fit their own narrow, self-absorbed self-interests.
Yes, he stole, they say.
But he never took “cash for kids.”
This quid pro quo, cash for kids, is the way many bright people including federal prosecutors portray the terrible injustice that former county president judge Ciavarella perpetrated against children. Thousands of youngsters appeared before him in juvenile court during the years he sent them into prison camps for minor infractions.
Ciavarella’s partner in crime Michael Conahan – also a former county president judge - closed the county juvenile lock-up despite state regulators telling the county that the facility was sound and should remain open. Then these two gangster judges cut a multi-million dollar kickback deal with the builder and owner of a private juvenile operation where they agreed to send the children.
They sent the kids to these institutions despite the protest of probation officers, cops and others who felt the children should not be imprisoned.
But off to prison they went. Off to the prison that was built, owned and operated by the very people who paid off the judges.
What part of “cash for kids” don’t Ciavarella’s cheerleaders understand?
The average child should be able to connect these dots that link Ciavarella to the kids to the money and to the prison.
But members of Ciavarella’s narcissistic booster club refuse to see the simple logic that simply explains their friend as a degenerate child predator who sent undeserving juveniles into slavery.
Their pal is a good person, the cult-crawlers say. Their buddy is a nice person, they assure the world. Their man is not a demon, they argue.
The apologists’ refusal to see the facts as they appear tacitly justifies his heinous crimes. Their defense validates Ciavarella as a simple man gone astray for money rather than as a devil run amok. Wallowing in the pure evil of his ways he continues to use, manipulate and deceive even his so-called friends.
Ciavarella has already copped a plea and is headed to prison along with his dirty co-conspirator Conahan.
The apologists should stop copping their own weak pleas. By doing so, they demean the community and themselves. They appear less than honest by posing a viable threat to common sense.
Defending Ciavarella is a lost cause. He will soon lose his freedom. The apologists will lose their credibility.
But if Ciavarella continues to convey to friends and associates that he never sold kids for cash, then he should order his attorney to immediately withdraw his plea agreement with the government and ask to go to trial.
Prosecutors can then unload the evidence they assure the good people of America that they have against Ciavarella – evidence that prosecutors assure will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ciavarella, indeed, sold kids for cash.
Let a jury decide.
Let law-abiding people judge, people who struggle to make a living and raise their children against the odds in a society where fairness seems lost. Let a jury of Ciavarella’s peers decide his fate.
The apologists can appear as character witnesses and weep that he is a good man who didn’t really mean to hurt anybody, a wonderful husband and father who lost his way in a cruel, cruel world.
Yes, the world is cruel.
But Ciavarella made it crueler.
Ruthless and brutal in his selfishness, he pillaged the hopes and dreams of kids who deserved better than a dangerous prison camp. Savage in his lack of empathy, he sent them into the wilderness in exchange for money.
Simple facts clearly show that Ciavarella took big money to fill prison cells. He profited from small criminal acts that did not justify jail. He created a lavish life style on the backs of the young who trusted that he would be just. He made big money from sending the children into the slave trade. He was just another misery trafficker.
If that’s not “cash for kids” I don’t know what is.
Ciavarella cracked the whip at the Luzerne County child slave auction.
The public sale is over.
It’s time to take our childrens’ heads off the chopping block.
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Corbett
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