President Biden has sparked anger among Pennsylvanians after he commuted the sentence of a corrupt judge who was jailed for more than 17 years after he was caught taking kickbacks for sending juveniles to for-profit detention facilities.
In what came to be known as the kids-for-cash scandal, former Judge Michael Conahan shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and shared $2.8 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups. Another judge, Mark Ciavarella, was also involved in the illicit scheme, the effects of which are still felt today among victims and families.
The scandal is considered Pennsylvania’s largest-ever judicial corruption scheme with the state’s supreme court throwing out some 4,000 juvenile convictions involving more than 2,300 kids after the scheme was uncovered.
Former Luzerne County Court Judges Michael Conahan, left, and Mark Ciavarella, right, leave the United States District Courthouse in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 15, 2009. (AP Photo/The Citizens’ Voice, Mark Moran)
Conahan, 72, pleaded guilty in 2010 to one count of racketeering conspiracy but was released from prison to home confinement in 2020 because of COVID-19 health concerns with six years left in his sentence.
But Biden, the so-called favorite son of Scranton, commuted Conahan’s sentence Thursday as part of the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history in which he commuted jail sentences for nearly 1,500 people and granted 39 pardons.
“My Administration will continue reviewing clemency petitions to advance equal justice under the law, promote public safety, support rehabilitation and reentry, and provide meaningful second chances,” the president said.
Sandy Fonzo, who once confronted Ciavarella outside federal court after her son was placed in juvenile detention and committed suicide, said that the president’s actions were an “injustice” and “deeply painful.”
“I am shocked and I am hurt,” Fonzo said in a statement, per The Citizens Voice. “Conahan‘s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son’s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power. This pardon feels like an injustice for all of us who still suffer. Right now I am processing and doing the best I can to cope with the pain that this has brought back.”
The decision has raised questions as to why Biden would choose to commute the sentence of a judge who is detested in the area.
Fox News has reached out to the White House for comment but has not received a response.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said that he opposed the president’s actions and insisted that the judge should have been given a longer prison sentence given the damage he inflicted on families.
“I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in Northeastern Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said at a press conference in Scranton Friday while adding he was not privy to all the information about the decision.
“This was not only a black eye on the community, the kids for cash scandal, but it also affected families in really deep and profound and sad ways. Some children took their lives because of this. Families were torn apart. There was all kinds of mental health issues and anguish that came as a result of these corrupt judges deciding they wanted to make a buck off a kid’s back.”
“Frankly, I thought the sentence that the judge got was too light, and the fact that he’s been allowed out over the last years because of COVID, was on house arrest and now has been granted clemency, I think, is absolutely wrong. He should have been in prison for at least the 17 years that he was sentenced to by a jury of his peers. He deserves to be behind bars, not walking as a free man.”
The scheme began in 2002 when Conahan shut down the state juvenile detention center and used money from the Luzerne County budget to fund a multimillion-dollar lease for the private facilities.
WHO ELSE MIGHT BIDEN PARDON AFTER HE SPARED HUNTER FROM SENTENCING?
In this Feb. 18, 2011, file photo, Sandy Fonzo of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, right, confronts former Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., as he leaves the federal courthouse in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Fonzo’s son, who was jailed when he was 17 by Ciavarella, committed suicide at the age of 23. (AP Photo/The ScrantonTimes-Tribune, Michael J. Mullen)
Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of kids would be sent to PA Child Care and its sister facility, Western PA Child Care.
Ciavarella ordered children as young as 8 years old to detention, many of them first-time offenders deemed delinquent for petty theft, jaywalking, truancy, smoking on school grounds and other minor infractions. The judge often ordered youths he had found delinquent to be immediately shackled, handcuffed and taken away without giving them a chance to put up a defense or even say goodbye to their families.
In 2022, both Conahan and Ciavarella were ordered to pay more than $200 million to nearly 300 people they victimized, although it’s unlikely the now-adult victims will see even a fraction of the damages award.
During the case, one victim described how he shook uncontrollably during a routine traffic stop — a consequence of the traumatizing impact of his childhood detention — and had to show his mental health records in court to “explain why my behavior was so erratic.”
Several of the childhood victims who were part of the lawsuit when it began in 2009 have since died from overdoses or suicide, prosecutors said.
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President Biden speaks at a “Christmas Dinner for All” in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. (Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The scheme, per The Citizens Voice, involved former Pennsylvania attorney Robert Powell paying Ciavarella and Conahan $770,000, who in turn funneled juvenile defendants to two private, for-profit detention centers Powell partly owned.
Powell served an 18-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to felony counts of failing to report a felony and being an accessory to a conspiracy.
Real estate developer Robert K. Mericle paid the judges $2.1 million and was later charged with failing to disclose to investigators and a grand jury that he knew the judges were defrauding the government. Mericle served one year in federal prison, per The Citizens Voice.
Ciavarella is serving a 28-year prison sentence on honest services mail fraud charges, per the publication.
Fox News’ Matt Finn and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
