Will Wronged Juveniles Lose Right to Sue?
Thousands of youthful offenders who appeared before a corrupt judge in Pennsylvania are at risk of losing their right to sue for damages and court fees.
At issue is a May decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to destroy all documents related to those convicted while disgraced judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. presided. The idea would be to get their records fully expunged.
On Monday, Marsha Levick, chief legal counsel for the Juvenile Law Center, a public interest law firm in Philadelphia, appeared in federal court in Scranton to ask that the records be preserved, the New York Times reports.
“This is about destroying evidence,” Levick told the Times. “Without these documents…it would make it nearly impossible for these kids to get justice.”
Last week, the Supreme Court amended its order to preserve, under seal, some of the records, those in which some 400 juveniles have already filed suit.
But lawyers for the youths argue that the amended order falls short of safeguarding records for 6,100 remaining youths who went before Judge Ciavarella, who ran the juvenile court in Luzerne County for 12 years before his plea in February to tax evasion and wire fraud. Those youths either haven’t yet been told their rights or had yet to request records, the Times reports.
Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan, Court of Common Pleas judge, were implicated in a scheme that involved sending thousands of juveniles to two private detention centers in exchange for $2.6 million in kickbacks.
