Do Judges Ever Take Kickbacks? In Probate and/or Family Court?

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, AP

SCRANTON, Pa. -Two Pennsylvania judges agreed Monday to plead guilty to fraud charges accusing them of taking $2.6 million in kickbacks in return for placing juvenile offenders into certain detention facilities.
The plea agreements for Luzerne County President Judge Mark Ciavarella and Senior Judge Michael Conahan call for sentences of more than seven years in prison. Ciavarella resigned from the bench in a Jan. 23 letter to Gov. Ed Rendell. Conahan has agreed to resign within 10 days of a judge's acceptance of the plea.

Authorities say the judges took kickbacks between 2003 and 2007 in exchange for guaranteeing the placement of juvenile offenders into facilities operated by PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care LLC. In some cases, Ciavarella ordered children into detention even when juvenile probation officers did not recommend it.

"They sold their oaths of offices to the highest bidders," Deron Roberts, chief of the FBI's Scranton office, said at a news conference Monday.

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This corruption case aside, which affected thousands of minors, brings into question the kickbacks that are received for child support enforcement and the federally subsidized family court system. For every action taken on a case in a family court involving establishing child support orders, establishing paternity orders, and associated enforcement "services" a kickback is received to the state and local offices that trickle right back to the judge making the decisions. What is worse about these kickbacks in the family court system, is that everyone knows that this is happening.

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