Judiciary
Judge Rejects Plea Deal for 2 Ex-Judges in Pa. Pay-for-Jailed-Kids Case
Posted Aug 3, 2009, 05:35 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A federal judge has rejected a plea deal that calls for 87-month sentences for two Pennsylvania judges who pleaded guilty in an alleged scheme to steer juveniles to for-profit detention facilities in exchange for $2.6 million in kickbacks.
In an order posted late Friday, U.S. District Judge Edwin Kosik rejected the plea deal for former Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella Jr. and Michael Conahan, according to stories in the New York Times, the Legal Intelligencer and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Kosik said the former judges had filed court papers or made public statements since their guilty pleas that showed they had not accepted responsibility for their crimes. The New York Times called Kosik’s order “highly critical” of the judges.
Kosik was particularly troubled about objections filed by Conahan to the presentencing report, the Legal Intelligencer story says. He also criticized public remarks by Ciavarella that there was no “quid pro quo.”
The judges can withdraw their guilty pleas or accept a sentence to be imposed by Kosik.
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