Reverse $3.5M Verdict Due to Taint of Corrupt Judges, Overseer Tells Top Pa. Court
Asked to make a recommendation to the state’s top court about allegations that two corrupt judges might have influenced the result of a $3.5 million libel verdict against a Pennsylvania newspaper, a court-appointed jurist says the case should be retried.
Although Lehigh County Judge William Platt made no finding that the two Luzerne County judges did, in fact, influence the case against the Citizens Voice, he said it should be retried because of an appearance of impropriety, reports the Associated Press.
An attorney for plaintiff businessman Thomas Joseph had argued that the newspaper took advantage of an unrelated $2.6 million juvenile court kickbacks scandal to attempt to torpedo the judgment.
But scheming by former judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella in the kickbacks case, which resulted in their guilty pleas in a federal corruption case earlier this year, “influenced their conduct and judgments in other Luzerne County cases and could have reasonably influenced their conduct in the Joseph case,” Platt found.
Ciavarella heard the libel case in a bench trial, after it was steered to him by Conahan. He testified that he rendered a fair verdict, and his decision was upheld by an appeals court that found the newspaper article was inaccurate and did not comply with Citizens Voice rules about the use of anonymous sources, according to the AP.
However, Ciavarella’s “demeanor and lack of remorse” helped persuade him, Platt said, that the appearance of impropriety required a new trial. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court appointed him to review the libel case and make a recommendation after the juvenile court scandal broke.
Additional and related coverage:
Citizens’ Voice: “Judge recommends $3.5 M defamation verdict be vacated”
ABAJournal.com: “Judge Rejects Plea Deal for 2 Ex-Judges in Pa. Pay-for-Jailed-Kids Case”
ABAJournal.com: “Disgraced Pa. Judge: I Didn’t Discuss $3.5M Libel Case”
