First off, let's establish that the two judges who went to jail, Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were gushed over by plenty of officials/staff on Luzerne county. Notice that the same papers blasting those who stood by and did nothing were also those who praised Conahan/Ciavarella for their "tough" sentencing style. I don't recall which off the top of my head, but one of the two won the Newspapers "Man Of The Year" award.
A property developer, Robert Mericle, had gotten a prison contract and in exchange for cash bribes, the judges would sentence the kids harshly for often nothing crimes. One girl received 3 months for a fake mocking facebook page of her principal.
The story on the books is that two judges went rogue and that was that. They were caught, got jail sentences, public condemning, and that was that.
But that's not where it actually ended, or even started.
To understand how corrupt this county is, you have to take a look at it in context.
Take Anthony Lupas. Anthony Lupus was a local attorney, and the chairman for his towns Democratic Party Board. His son, David Lupas, became the District Attorney(DA). The son is now a judge. What's wrong with this? Well, Anthony Lupus was a ponzi scheme artist. A pretty damn successful one, too, with over $6 million missing. Now, the sins of the fathers don't always transfer to the son, but they do when the son borrows $400,000 to run unopposed.
What you witnessed in Kids For Cash was not justice finally taking place, but rather a coup that took place for others to rise high.
The situation hasn't gotten better, it's actually gotten worse as the new criminals are actually competent compared to the two failures of human life that were Conahan and Ciavarella.
Proof that the uppers don't really care about what happened? The most exclusive and expensive private school in the areas sports field is the Robert Mericle sportsfield. This came up after Kids For Cash, and while you could argue it would be OK if he was just accused, he wasn't. He was convicted. Convicted. Anthony Lupas name is still up at our local Casino, take a look.
By the way, the one who was molesting the children had his wife beg officer John Saranchuk for help. Saranchuk's response? Telling her that if she kept pushing, she'd be arrested. The drug dealer? Well, I can't say if Officer Saranchuk has a drug problem. I can say that when the FBI raided the Dupont police office, that a pretty large amount of cocaine was missing. After the drug user(or one of them) was gone.
These days the Luzerne County Courts are basically Kangaroo Courts. Go into court and observe. Play Bingo with any of the following:
Refusing to have certain parties go under oath.
Threats of contempt of court.
Refusal to even hear certain motions. Can't appeal something if it was never legally denied. Pretty clever, right?
A person involved in the Kids For Cash scandal but still somehow with a law license.
Rampant nepotism.
Rampant cronyism.
Now, Luzerne County is somewhat split. No one will say anything bad about the Kids For Cash victims, but you'll get the occasional "just some troublemakers who got to spend some extra time" in juvy. Others want to speak up but can't. Others speak out, and are punished for it.
There is a ton of stuff I won't go into here in depth, but feel free to look the stuff up if you're interested:
The fact the old court administrator was the brother-in-law of Conahan(meaning the guy who can decide where cases go was related to the guy who judged the cases.)
Gas Gate(In which thousands of dollars of gas was stolen, and seemingly disappeared)
Leo Glodzik, a corrupt businessman who had cars illegally towed. Poor people were essentially left to walk in the cold. Nicer cars were towed. Off duty cops were caught multiple times driving cars possessed in this way. The man was convicted, the cops were not.
The fact that one of the judges, the honorable Lesa Gelb, stole her firms client list when she went off on her own, and then had this squashed.
The pay-for-play DUI system, in which the mayor of Laflin(the town where both judges for Kids For Cash lived, as where Lupas lived, his son lives, and Sanguedolce live) wasn't charged for an obvious DUI.
I can answer other questions, assuming I don't get a knock on my door.
LuzCoTruth446 karma
Hi everyone,
I'm from the area(Luzerne County, which is near Scranton, PA. Yes, the Scranton from The Office)
A lot of people want the gist of the story, more answers, etc.
So here it is, from someone who has experienced first hand Luzerne County's "Culture Of Corruption".
First off, let's establish that the two judges who went to jail, Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were gushed over by plenty of officials/staff on Luzerne county. Notice that the same papers blasting those who stood by and did nothing were also those who praised Conahan/Ciavarella for their "tough" sentencing style. I don't recall which off the top of my head, but one of the two won the Newspapers "Man Of The Year" award.
A property developer, Robert Mericle, had gotten a prison contract and in exchange for cash bribes, the judges would sentence the kids harshly for often nothing crimes. One girl received 3 months for a fake mocking facebook page of her principal.
The story on the books is that two judges went rogue and that was that. They were caught, got jail sentences, public condemning, and that was that.
But that's not where it actually ended, or even started.
To understand how corrupt this county is, you have to take a look at it in context.
Take Anthony Lupas. Anthony Lupus was a local attorney, and the chairman for his towns Democratic Party Board. His son, David Lupas, became the District Attorney(DA). The son is now a judge. What's wrong with this? Well, Anthony Lupus was a ponzi scheme artist. A pretty damn successful one, too, with over $6 million missing. Now, the sins of the fathers don't always transfer to the son, but they do when the son borrows $400,000 to run unopposed.
What you witnessed in Kids For Cash was not justice finally taking place, but rather a coup that took place for others to rise high.
The situation hasn't gotten better, it's actually gotten worse as the new criminals are actually competent compared to the two failures of human life that were Conahan and Ciavarella.
Proof that the uppers don't really care about what happened? The most exclusive and expensive private school in the areas sports field is the Robert Mericle sportsfield. This came up after Kids For Cash, and while you could argue it would be OK if he was just accused, he wasn't. He was convicted. Convicted. Anthony Lupas name is still up at our local Casino, take a look.
One of the worst areas is Dupont. Dupont was(is?) pretty much the Wild West. There were 3 cops in the area. One is in jail for being a drug addict, one is in jail for molesting children, and the DA who was elected following the outing of the criminals will no longer recognize the old Chief of Police as a cop.
By the way, the one who was molesting the children had his wife beg officer John Saranchuk for help. Saranchuk's response? Telling her that if she kept pushing, she'd be arrested. The drug dealer? Well, I can't say if Officer Saranchuk has a drug problem. I can say that when the FBI raided the Dupont police office, that a pretty large amount of cocaine was missing. After the drug user(or one of them) was gone.
The new police chief had to give up his gun because of a PFA filed against him.. This is "progress" in Luzerne County.
The current assistant DA is the reason many of the Kids For Cash cases went through.. So when you ask "But why didn't you do X? The answer is that a lot of the time the assistant DA would say "just let this go, you'll only make it worse by fighting." Hey give him credit, they would have made it worse.
These days the Luzerne County Courts are basically Kangaroo Courts. Go into court and observe. Play Bingo with any of the following:
Refusing to have certain parties go under oath.
Threats of contempt of court.
Refusal to even hear certain motions. Can't appeal something if it was never legally denied. Pretty clever, right?
A person involved in the Kids For Cash scandal but still somehow with a law license.
Rampant nepotism.
Rampant cronyism.
Now, Luzerne County is somewhat split. No one will say anything bad about the Kids For Cash victims, but you'll get the occasional "just some troublemakers who got to spend some extra time" in juvy. Others want to speak up but can't. Others speak out, and are punished for it.
There is a ton of stuff I won't go into here in depth, but feel free to look the stuff up if you're interested:
The fact the old court administrator was the brother-in-law of Conahan(meaning the guy who can decide where cases go was related to the guy who judged the cases.)
Gas Gate(In which thousands of dollars of gas was stolen, and seemingly disappeared)
Leo Glodzik, a corrupt businessman who had cars illegally towed. Poor people were essentially left to walk in the cold. Nicer cars were towed. Off duty cops were caught multiple times driving cars possessed in this way. The man was convicted, the cops were not.
The fact that one of the judges, the honorable Lesa Gelb, stole her firms client list when she went off on her own, and then had this squashed.
The pay-for-play DUI system, in which the mayor of Laflin(the town where both judges for Kids For Cash lived, as where Lupas lived, his son lives, and Sanguedolce live) wasn't charged for an obvious DUI.
I can answer other questions, assuming I don't get a knock on my door.
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