Breaking News: Ciavarella, Conahan plead guilty.
Update: Gregory Zappalla now owns Powell's interest in PA child care.
Breaking News: Ciavarella, Conahan plead guilty to income tax charges; will serve 87 months 1:24 p.m.
Well I have said all along that the Luzerne County court system was corrupt and I guess it was proven today with the guilty pleas of Conahan and Ciavarella. Who knows who else will be charged in this case and what the ramifications are to the cases that these judges have tried. I really is a sad state of affairs when the judicial system of a state or county is corrupt. It reflects badly on all involved in that court system and it brings serious doubt to all decisions rendered by the jurist of said county.
How many cases can be appealed due to this new evidence? Who knows what the truth is since they plead guilty. There will not be a trial and the facts of all of the other crimes might never be known. There have been stories about this case for the last couple of years. There was allot of uproar about the changing of the charges for Bryan Kocis, the murder victim in another high profile case. It seems that there has been talk about the judges who were just charged had motive to kill Bryan Kocis. This is due to it being a 3rd degree felony to impede due process of law and not having Kocis register as a sexual offender under Megan's law. There is a mandatory prison term with regards to this type of case.
There is also the possibility that there are other people who are going to be charged down the pipe as there are other things that these judges were involved in. Those who profited from the illegal activities that the judges were involved with could also be charged. Luzerne county is now under a serious microscope and there is the possibility that this latest problem could also affect the DA's office. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.
Here is the news story form the Citizens Voice the Times Leader also has reported on this case.
Published: Monday, January 26, 2009 1:36 PM EST
Luzerne County judges Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were charged today with two counts of conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service in collecting federal income taxes and a scheme to defraud the citizens of Luzerne County and Pennsylvania of the right to their honest services.Ciavarella and Conahan were charged with concealing the receipt of $2.6 million between January 2003 and April 2007. They have filed a plea agreement, signed by both judges, and pleaded guilty to honest service fraud and income tax conspiracy.The judges stipulated they will resign their judgeship and be disbarred. They will serve 87 months in federal prison and make restitution as stipulated by the court.
There was also the question of misappropriations of funds with regards to the juvenile court system where Judge Conahan's brother in law as the main psychologist for the evaluations of the people who appeared in front of his bench. There is also the the case of Conahan's wife who was involved with a former drug dealer with regards to a auto dealership in Florida. With all of this is there any wonder why Luzerne County is up in arms with regards to their court system.
This is Elmysterio and I'm out.
Obviously, they should not have only killed Bryan, and framed Harlow and Joe.
ReplyDeleteThey needed to kill and frame a LOT more people to stay out of prison. THAT was their mistake!
In addition to Bryan, if they had only killed everyone associated with Luzerne county juvenile detention system, and ALL the juvenile offenders setn there, AND their families...
...and then framed not only Harlow and Joe for Kocis, but also, um...Godzilla or Rodan? For the mass murders enumerated above...THEN nobody would have been the wiser, and they would still be judges in good standing today.
BUT they didn't. What can you say, criminals are stupid!
Well I have said that Luzerne County was a joke for at least a year but I was called crazy. Well I guess these judges getting arrested might have proven that my black helicoter conspircy was not so crazy. Who know's the Bitchless blog might be on to something.
ReplyDeleteLOL!
ReplyDelete"The information filed today alleges the judges received payments from two persons, identified as Individual # 1 and Individual # 2. They are not named, but the information says Individual # 1 was a Luzerne County attorney who was an owner of the Pennsylvania Child Care juvenile detention center that is at the core of the government’s case. Butler Township attorney Robert J. Powell was until June one of two co-owners of Pennsylvania Child Care. The other owner, Gregory Zappala, who is now sole owner of the firm, is a Pittsburgh-area investment banker."
ReplyDeleteI'm a little confused Elm, why didn't the black helicopters eliminate those people above?
Who knows what is actually going on. Ciavarella, 58, and Conahan, 56, have come under fire for listing an interest in W-Cat Inc. in their 2007 filings, their latest statements. That company, owned by county Prothonotary Jill Moran, was previously co-owned by attorney Robert J. Powell. Powell and Moran are partners in the Powell Law Firm. Powell, until recently, was also a partner in PA Child Care, the company operating the juvenile detention center in Pittston Township.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do know is that Conahan was on the board of directors of First National Community Bancorp Inc. Here is a news article about powell and Zappala.http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgrxj3hp_86db47m3dm
I would not doubt that Zappala worked J.P.morgan chase Bank and we know all about Robert J Powell. He was also involved in other business deals with Conahan and Ciavarella..
JP Morgan Chase Acquires Cranberry, Pa.-Based Municipal Bond Underwriter.
ReplyDeleteArticle from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) (viaKnight-Ridder/Tribune Business News) Article date: February 20, 2003 More results for: gregory Zappala | Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 2003 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Byline: Patricia Sabatini
Feb. 20--RRZ Public Markets, the Cranberry-based municipal bond underwriter and major regional player in the state, has been acquired for an undisclosed amount by New York-based banking behemoth JP Morgan Chase & Co.
RRZ is headed by Gregory Zappala, 41, the son of outgoing state Supreme Court Justice Stephen A. Zappala Sr. and the younger brother of Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. He will become a JP Morgan vice president in charge of Pennsylvania operations.
RRZ works for school districts, municipalities and authorities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, underwriting bonds for transportation, airport, education, toll ...
Looks like Zappala screwed over a school ditrict I PA for his own profit. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ay5LDbjbjy6c
ReplyDeleteSounds like the Kocis deal of 2002 was the least of their worries.
ReplyDeleteWell you could say that but if you look at all of the other stuff that they were involved with you can not rule it out either.
ReplyDeleteHell the President of the bank that Conahan was on the board of was indicted for having ties to the mob.
That Powell guy who ran the juvie center had ties to all of these same people.
Then you have the guy Zappala who bought Powell's interest in the jail and the airport who has ties to a currupt deal with a company that was sold to J P Morgan. That deal caused the state of Pensylvania 24 million dolars. Zappela brokered that deal and was made a vp at J.P. Morgan because of it. The that the company said was supposed to save the school district money and help them out of a bad finacial situation that only got worse.
It really makes you wonder what is really going on and why it was allowed to happen. It really must smell like a bucket of dead fish in Luzerne County.
I bet if you check and dig deap enough there is more of this same shit going on all over the country and that is why we are in the finacial situation we are in right now.
This same thing is most definitely going on in California, constructing and servicing private prisons is already a huge industry. Absolutely a direct result of privatization.
ReplyDeleteSadly, this story is gonna become about the scumbags and not the absurdity of a system that allows judges to invest in incarceration. Look for it sensationalized soon on MSNBC's crime doc blocks.
I also want to connect this situation to Dick Cheney's equity in an investment film profiting off of prisons. The vice-president making money when people go to jail, that makes sense to who? Oh yeah, him and that's all that matters.
Well I think the profit made of incarceration is wrong. Prisons should be state run institutions. That being said the legal proffession would not have the ability to profit off of jailing prisoners
ReplyDelete"elmysterio said...
ReplyDeleteAs you've correctly complained before Elm, you've been lied to by many people many times before in this case. This "deal" is yet another example of you being lied to by one of your shady sources, I think.
Yeah I was lied about too, Just ask PC about that one. He said that I threatened to have him arrested when he know's it was Renee. The two of them are probablby laughing about it right now. You know the fact that they are in constant communication."
Perhaps you should have another read of your chat Elm... 1, 2, and 3.
PC cut the bullshit you know good and damn well that I was conveying what Renee was saying to me in that chat transcript. You outted me because you were pissed about a comment I made.
ReplyDeleteYou crossed the line and proved to me you could not be trusted. And there is nothing that you could do to right that. You can make all of the snarky comments that you want.
Certain people can not keep a secret. Your mission is to find out who that is. But the fact is you are in communication with Renee and Robert Wagner. I don't know if it could be misinterperted as witnwess tampering but you should really becareful you you discuss this case wtih.
"but you should really becareful you you discuss this case wtih.".
ReplyDeleteIs that another threat?
That is not a threat it is just a fact that they are both witnesses in a murder case that you are writing about and that could cause a problem for them on the witness stand. Now go away I really have no time for your bullshit.
ReplyDelete"elmysterio said...
ReplyDeletePC cut the bullshit you know good and damn well that I was conveying what Renee was saying to me in that chat transcript. You outted me because you were pissed about a comment I made."
No Elm, I 'outed' you because you threatened me, and you were wrong.
PC I never threatened you I just conveyed what Renee said. That was all and you know that. I never posted anything that you said to me in our Instant messages on my blog until after you did it.
ReplyDeleteSo you can delude your self into believing that I threatend you all you want. It is done and you can use that same excuse for your reason for outing me on your blog but you also know that was a lie.
You got pissed becasue I made fun of you and one of your comments. You could not intimidate me and that pissed you off and that is why you outed me. Funny that still did not work and I will say what ever I want on my blog and no one can make me do otherwise.
I don't censor statements on my blog either. I figure if some one wants to say something here they can. the only person whose shit I won't tolerate is Damon Kruezer.
And the reason for that is becasue he always has to pontificate on how great he is through one of his stupid alter egos. He is more than welcome to post as Kent Barclay or Damon Kruezer. though.