Trial ready to begin in 'kids for cash' case

Once Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. could do no wrong. He was the popular judge, "Mr. Zero Tolerance," who wouldn't brook any misbehavior from belligerent youngsters appearing before him in juvenile court.

Today, despite all his protestations, Ciavarella is seen as the pitiless overseer of a cutthroat courtroom in which he conspired with another judge to grow rich upon the suffering of children.

Starting Monday, Ciavarella, 60, will get his chance to redeem his name as jury selection in his federal corruption trial finally gets under way, two years after the so-called kids-for-cash scandal exploded in northeastern Pennsylvania.

The trial is eagerly awaited in Luzerne County, where prosecutors say Ciavarella, now an ex-judge, and the county's former president judge, Michael T. Conahan, took in $2.9 million in exchange for shipping children and teenagers to for-profit detention centers.

Among other cases, Ciavarella jailed a 12-year-old boy for two years for crashing the family car in a joyride. He gave a six-month sentence to a teen spotted giving the finger to a police officer. He ordered an 11-year-old boy - 4-foot-2 and 63 pounds - taken away in leg shackles when his parents were unable to pay a $488 fine.

Since the scandal broke in 2009, the string of indictments and guilty pleas has managed to awe and appall many residents in a region long grown cynical about pols who dip into the public till. But many of the details haven't been aired in open court since everyone else charged in the case has pleaded guilty.

Ciavarella's prosecution is expected to be the climax of a scandal that has mushroomed month by month. In all, federal prosecutors have brought charges against nearly 30 officials, including a third county judge, numerous court officials, a state senator, school board members, and county officials.

Marsha Levick, chief counsel for the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, said the alleged judicial wrongdoing constituted "the most serious judicial scandal in the history of the United States."

The state Supreme Court has agreed to wipe out the criminal records of up to 4,000 youngsters whose cases were tainted over five years in Ciavarella's courtroom. Lawyers for these children and teens have lawsuits for money damages pending in federal court.