Posted: Wednesday, 09 December 2009 11:14AM
Devil Judge Should Inspire Us All
Steve Corbett Reporting
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
“A.L.” wants to go to college, study criminal justice and one day become a lawyer.
For that dream, she can thank former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella.
Before you give Ciavarella credit, though, consider exactly what he did for her – actually to her – that now causes her to want to do for others what was not done for her.
Ciavarella abused her.
He tortured her.
Ciavarella deprived her of her civil and constitutional rights.
He manhandled her.
Yet A.L. survived.
Sobbing as she appeared before the state commission that’s hearing testimony into the horrific abuses of the Luzerne County juvenile justice system, A.L. regained her composure and told her lawyer that she wanted to continue. The bold courage she exhibited when she publicly addressed the commission Monday stands as brutal testimony to the obscene silence that allowed this tragedy to happen.
Few people in the Luzerne County courthouse will admit that they knew anything was wrong in Ciavarella’s courtroom. Few will admit that they sensed a dungeon master at work rather than a compassionate arbiter of justice. Few will admit that they could have done something to stop it but chose to do nothing.
They had jobs to protect. They were afraid. They didn’t know. They had no evidence. They didn’t want to know. Or they didn’t care about these sad, troubled kids.
Of course some of these children posed a danger to society. But most of the children who Ciavarella sent away were not dangerous. They were kids who needed help, counseling and guidance.
They needed to be protected.
They needed us.
But they got Ciavarella, who federal prosecutors accuse of selling kids for cash to a private for-profit prison.
Some people still on the public payroll at the courthouse actually still believe that Ciavarella was a good guy, a wise man and a caring judge. Some of his supporters still work at the courthouse, making decisions about children’s lives. Some of the very people who turned away when they could have done something to help save the children now decide what is best for the children.
Some of these people even encouraged Ciavarella. Some accompanied him to a graduation at a reform school where they were treated to cocktails, finger foods and overnight stays at a hotel.
When a commission member asked a current probation supervisor who paid for the hotel, she said she didn’t know. When asked who might know the answer she again said she didn’t know. But she knew enough to compliment Ciavarella and say that the monster that people believe they see in Ciavarella is not the man she knows.
This county supervisor needs to lose her job. So do all those who worked in public service in Luzerne County and allowed Ciavarella to morph from a monster into a bigger monster. Public defenders, prosecutors, clerks, probation officials, maybe even other judges, sensed evil at work. But they allowed Ciavarella to reign as the beast. Courthouse employees applauded his decisions, feared his wrath and supported his tenure.
Ciavarella’s power grew.
He ordered guards to handcuff an 11-year-old who showed up in “fine court” without the money to pay his fine. Guards took the kid away. Ciavarella sentenced a 15-year-old to “indefinite” probation. No light at the end of the tunnel, her mother testified.
What a guy, his friends said. A nice man, they said. Zero tolerance, they said. Toughlove, they said. Brilliant, they said, as the demon continued to hurt children.
Some of these friends even joined him at the Florida condo he shared with former Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan, Ciavarella’s partner in crime. They golfed. They drank. They wallowed in their success.
Back home, thousands of kids suffered the way prisoners of war suffer when cut off from all stimulation, love and hope.
The 15-year-old on indefinite probation started cutting herself and wound up in a psychiatric hospital.
“She worries about everything,” her mother testified. “She is afraid to trust anybody.”
Ciavarella, who doesn’t seem worried about anything, is responsible for her breakdown.
This devil judge should inspire us all.
Fight back at all cost.
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Corbett
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