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A freaken Judge, (public servant) taking a finders fee for putting kids in jail. Hopefully he spends the rest of his life behind bars.
The judge is convicted of taking bribes from private prisons to put minor juvenile offenders in serious prisons. The evidence seems pretty straightforward. The guy is a s bag.
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Grieving mom screams at Pa. judge, becomes symbol
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press – 1 hr 29 mins ago
SCRANTON, Pa. – Sandy Fonzo hadn't planned on confronting the Pennsylvania judge whom she blames for robbing her late son of his chance at a happy, productive life.
Her emotional, obscenity-laced outburst last week — caught on video and spread over the Internet — has come to symbolize the anger felt by parents whose children were railroaded by Mark Ciavarella, the former Luzerne County judge convicted Friday of racketeering in a $2.8 million "kids for cash" plot to send youth offenders to for-profit detention centers.
Fonzo's son was 17 and an all-star wrestler with a chance at a college scholarship when he landed in Ciavarella's courtroom on a minor drug paraphernalia charge. Though the teen, Edward Kenzakoski, had no prior criminal record, he spent months at the private lockups and a wilderness camp and missed his senior year of high school.
Kenzakoski emerged an angry, bitter and depressed young man. He committed suicide last June at the age of 23.
"He was just never the same. He couldn't recover," Fonzo said Tuesday. "He wanted to go on with his life, but he was just hurt. He was affected so deeply, more than anyone knew."
Fonzo was at work Friday when friends started texting her about the verdict in Ciavarella's federal racketeering trial — guilty on 12 of 39 counts. She rushed to the courthouse because she had heard that Ciavarella was going to be taken out in handcuffs.
Instead, the disgraced judge was allowed to remain free pending sentencing. Ciavarella and his lawyers walked out onto the courthouse steps on a brilliant, unseasonably warm day and declared victory.
"He never took a kickback, he never took a bribe. ... This is not a `cash for kids' case, and we hope that someone starts getting the message," said Ciavarella's attorney, Al Flora, referring to the fact that jurors had acquitted his client of many of the charges.
Fonzo, who had been standing in the media scrum, lost it.
"My kid's not here anymore!" she screamed. "He's dead! Because of him! He ruined my ... life! I'd like him to go to and rot there forever! Do you remember me? Do you remember me? Do you remember my son, an all-star wrestler? He's gone. He shot himself in the heart. You s bag!"
Ciavarella kept his back to Fonzo as she yelled, glancing at her only when she tapped him on the shoulder. Then he turned his back again and walked down the steps.
"I don't know that lady," he told reporters. "I don't know what the facts and cir stances are concerning her son."
Fonzo said Tuesday that she couldn't help but lash out.
"They were all having a wonderful day and they thought they had a victory. My son's not here, and (Ciavarella is) on his way out and it's a beautiful day and he's going to enjoy it with his family," she recalled. "I just had enough of them and I just couldn't control myself."
Prosecutors alleged that Ciavarella and a second judge took more than $2 million in bribes from the builder of the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centers and extorted hundreds of thousands of dollars from their owner.
Ciavarella sent youth offenders to the private lockups while he was taking payments, ordering detention for minor offenses and routinely depriving juveniles of basic legal protections, including the right to counsel, according to a government panel that investigated the scandal. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out some 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella.
Fonzo said it galled her that Ciavarella continued to deny responsibility even after his conviction. The dramatic, disturbing video of her confrontation with the judge has sparked the interest of several national media outlets. She's scheduled to appear on NBC's "Today" show.
"The pain was just raw," she said. "Even if he didn't think he was to blame, wouldn't you turn around and just say, I'm sorry for your pain? ... He wouldn't even look at me until I tapped his shoulder."
Marsha Levick, co-founder and chief counsel of the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which blew the whistle on Ciavarella's harsh treatment of juveniles years before he was charged, said virtually no other judge would have ordered Fonzo's son to be locked up on such a minor charge.
She said her outburst gave voice to the families hurt by Ciavarella.
"Her personal story tells everybody else what happened in ways that lawyers can't," said Levick, whose firm represents Fonzo and other parents and children in a civil lawsuit against Ciavarella. "It was this horrible, gut-wrenching expression of grief."
Fonzo said she's been inundated with supportive messages from around the country. She hopes to rally hundreds to show up at Ciavarella's sentencing.
"If I could get all the kids, all the families, all the friends, everybody affected, and have hundreds of people wrap around that whole courthouse and have Ciavarella have to walk through us and see all these faces and hear the voices of what he's done, maybe that'll be an impact on his sentencing," she said.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110222/...mom_s_outburst
Last edited by RandomGuy; 02-23-2011 at 12:01 PM.
A freaken Judge, (public servant) taking a finders fee for putting kids in jail. Hopefully he spends the rest of his life behind bars.
Oh brother and he is democrat. What on earth is going on here?
How do you manage to view this story as a negative only towards the private sector and not the public sector also?Because the private sector always does it better...
But it's only a big deal in this forum if it's a republican. These lib s are probably raising money for the judges defense, just because he's a democrat.
"it's only a big deal in this forum if it's a republican"
link?
Jesus, can we just drop the "he's a democrat/republican" schtick just once and agree that he is a s bag?
Just when I thought you couldn't possbily say anything dumber, you go and top yourself.
I would have slit his throat if I was her.
If only. Americans are used to binary modes of thought. Zero or one.
Yeah, no problem. Just for the record there is a big deal in the political news where it's public sectors vs private sectors, big government vs smaller government with most dems taking the side of big government/public sector and repugs taking smaller governement/private sector so when I see a thread that headline is "private sectors always does it better" which obviously was meant to be sarcastic, I couldn't help but wonder what your motives were. I'll take you for your word though. I hope that son of a judge that just so happens to be a democrat burns in , if there is one.
My motive is to demonstrate that the profit motive just probably aren't suitable to apply to.
This is just one example of corruption in the private prison system. There are many others.
I don't mind letting private businesses try their hand at some government functions, but I have begun to seriously doubt the idea that "private industry always is more efficient than government".
...and I seriously doubt Government is any less corrupt than private business.
Profit Motive...is a uva drug.
For those unfamiliar with the phenomena of corporate prisons, they are the private sector's answer to the ever-increasing stress put on state/federal prison system. Mind you, when discussing the positives of this approach, it sould seem that no one in a position of authority ever once thought that perhaps there might eventually be A GODDAMN MARKET DEMAND FOR PRISONERS. Anyway, it would appear that the private prisons have found quite an expansion project over the last few years - juveniles and "illegal immigrants." Far from a Prison Industrial Complex conspiracy theorists, I like to think that this "moral hiccup" is a naturally occuring element as the great and brave private sector continues its trail toward winning the future!
Also, to jab back at WC's allegation that THIS only matters when it's a Republican behind the madness...Michael Moore exposed this case in one of his films, and Moore is an ultra-lib so that negates your criticisms here.
Sorry, forgot the blue.
Just when I thought you couldn't possbily say anything dumber, you go and top yourself.
Conahan's sentence commuted, the other judge will stay in prison until 2034.
https://www.citizensvoice.com/2024/1...or-cash-judge/In a separate statement, White House officials said Biden is granting clemency to nonviolent offenders “who were sentenced under outdated laws, policies, and practices.”
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