News Summary May 29 – June 11, 2010 Models for Change Mentioned The Herald-Review (IL)
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- Attorney: Agency deprives rights
- PA Child Care wants to block destruction of juvenile records Attorney argues that action could destroy financial documents. Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre)
- Lawyers: Orders on kids-for-cash records conflict each other Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre)
- Sexting Leads To Child Porn Charges For Teens Associated Press (AP) – Harrisburg Bureau
- Editorial: Fix state JCB Scranton Times Tribune
- Justice meltdown seen at all levels
Reading Eagle June 3, 2010 http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=224447 If there is nothing to hide, why not let the public into juvenile court? Senior Berks County Judge Arthur E. Grim believes the courts should be open to the public. Grim is the judge who knows most about the "cash-for-kids" scandal in Luzerne County. Grim presided over all the court hearings for juvenile victims of the $2.8 million scandal. "First and foremost, system accountability and openness is critical," Grim concluded in his final report to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Feb. 25. It was disheartening last week when the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice disagreed with Grim on this point. Gov. Ed Rendell appointed an 11-member commission in August 2009 to make recommendations to restore confidence in the juvenile court system. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., who presided in juvenile court, is awaiting trial on charges of diverting kids to detention facilities for kickbacks. Former President Judge Michael T. Conahan pleaded guilty last month to racketeering and conspiracy. The commission held 11 public hearings. The final report had 43 recommendations, including ensuring juvenile offenders have lawyers and requiring judges to write reasons on the record for dispositions. The commission did not, however, recommend opening the court. "Those in favor of opening all proceedings to the public argue that public scrutiny will serve as a check of abuse of power," the commission wrote. "The commission believes, however, on balance any abuse can be more appropriately addressed by enhancement to appellate review and to the system of judicial discipline rather than exposing children to the possibility that the facts surrounding childhood misconduct could be perpetually maintained in news clippings and even on the Internet." Are you kidding me? The commission doesn't seem to understand how news reporters operate. Just because someone tells me something or I hear something in an open courtroom doesn't mean I publish it in the newspaper. The job of a reporter is to cover the news - not to embarrass people for no reason. The media would not be interested in covering minor offenses committed by kids. We are interested, however, in preventing and reporting on public corruption.
By TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER June 3, 2010 http://www.timesleader.com/news/Attorney__Agency_deprives_rights_06-02-2010.html WILKES-BARRE – A local attorney said he plans to file a federal lawsuit today on behalf of approximately 25 parents who allege Luzerne County Children and Youth violated their constitutional rights in placing their children in foster care. James Hayward of Wilkes-Barre said the lawsuit will be a wide-ranging indictment of Children and Youth that will rival the egregiousness of the allegations contained in the “kids-for-cash” lawsuits involving former county Judge Mark Ciavarella’s placement of juveniles in detention centers. “It’s just like the ‘kids-for-cash’ case again,” Hayward said. “Everyone knew what Ciavarella was doing and didn’t do anything about it. Well, they all know what Children and Youth is doing and they’re not doing anything about it.” What Children and Youth is doing, Hayward said, is routinely Children and Youth violated their constitutional rights regarding court hearings that determine whether their children will remain in foster care or be returned home. The suit revolves around dependency court, which involves children who have been removed from their homes based on allegations of abuse or neglect. It is separate from delinquency court, which involves the placement of juveniles accused of crimes. Under state law, Children and Youth can take immediate custody of a child only if it can be shown there is an imminent threat to the child’s safety or health. A shelter care hearing must then be held to review that determination. Hayward said he has interviewed numerous parents who say they were never given a hearing, or were given such short notice that they could not present a meaningful rebuttal to the agency’s allegations. “I have four clients whose shelter care hearing was either scheduled while they were in the hospital, or they never had a shelter care hearing and they took the kids off them,” he said. Hayward said that in one case, his client had just given birth via caesarian section. Children and Youth sought to place the child. A shelter care hearing was scheduled just after she gave birth, which precluded her from attending. Hayward said he went to the hearing on her behalf and obtained a continuance. But that did not stop the agency from taking the child anyway. “They went that night or the night after and took the baby out of the hospital and put it in foster care,” Hayward said. Another issue, Hayward said, is the agency’s practice of taking a newborn from the biological parents based solely on the fact the parents have other children who are currently in foster care. Hayward said the law says agencies can do that only if a parent has previously had his or her parental rights to other children terminated. Luzerne County is doing so even when that is not the case, he said. “If you have a child in the system, as far as they are concerned, every child is in the system. That’s not the law,” he said. “They can do whatever they want and get away with it, and no one is challenging them.” Joe DeVizia, director of human services for the county, said he was advised Wednesday that Hayward planned on filing a lawsuit. DeVizia said he did not know what the specific allegations are, but insisted Children and Youth is working for the best interest of children. “There are a lot of issues surrounding why kids are in placement,” DeVizia said. “Our number one concern is always the safety and welfare of children.” More than two dozen parents, some of whom are plaintiffs in the pending suit, gathered at the Luzerne County Courthouse on Wednesday for an impromptu rally. DeVizia said he and Children and Youth Director Frank Castano spent nearly five hours meeting with 15 to 20 parents. He said he would ensure their concerns were addressed. Hayward said the suit will name Children and Youth as a defendant, as well as individual agency employees, the county and its human services department. The suit will not name judges who presided over dependency court, he said. PA Child Care wants to block destruction of juvenile records Attorney argues that action could destroy financial documents. Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre) By Mark Guydish June 5, 2010 http://www.timesleader.com/news/PA_Child_Care_wants_to_block_destruction_of_juvenile_records_06-04-2010.html WILKES-BARRE – An attorney for PA Child Care presented three witnesses and sifted through nearly 600 pages of documents Friday in an effort to get a federal judge to block the destruction of juvenile records as ordered by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Representing PA Child Care, Western Pa. Child Care, and Mid Atlantic Youth Services, Pittsburgh Attorney Bernard Schneider spent nearly two hours presenting his case for an injunction from U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo. Schneider argued that the Supreme Court order to expunge thousands of juvenile records was so broad it could lead to destruction of financial records needed for state-mandated audits, admission and treatment records needed to show compliance with state regulations, and records that could be critical in defense against lawsuits filed by children and parents. PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care are at the center of the Luzerne County juvenile court scandal. Mid Atlantic was the agency contracted to provide services in the centers. In January, 2009, then-Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella and then-Senior Judge Michael Conahan agreed to plead guilty to charges that they took millions from the owner and builder of the facilities in exchange for actions from the bench that benefited the centers. The judges later withdrew the pleas and were indicted. Conahan agreed to a new plea deal last month. Schneider noted many financial documents include the names of children, which means they may have to be destroyed under the terms of the court order. That would leave the centers incapable of meeting state-mandated auditing requirements. He also argued many of the treatment records and those tracking children as they entered and went through the centers must, by state law, be preserved if the centers want to pass state inspections. Former State Department of Public Welfare Southeast Region director Anne Shenberger testified that failing to comply with state regulations four times in a row would result in closing a facility, and that lack of some of the records Schneider presented would be deemed as non-compliance. Under cross-examination, however by attorney Sol Weiss, she conceded DPW would have to consult its legal department to see if records expunged by court order would be exempt from compliance requirements. Schneider went through numerous records he insisted could prove the centers had no responsibility in certain issues raised by attorneys representing parents and children who have sued the centers – as well as others involved in the scandal. He showed Caputo one “confession” a juvenile had written as part of his treatment, in which he admitted sexually abusing his younger half-sister. Attorneys who filed the suits “allege that kids were put there when they shouldn’t have been put there,” Schneider said. “If he did it, they’re not entitled to damages.” Schneider also showed documents that proved some children were put into detention prior to facing Ciavarella in court, meaning the detention was not ordered by the tainted judge, but by a probation officer. In those cases, at least part of their detention had nothing to do with the judges, a fact that could be important in the lawsuit defense. Schneider also argued that Caputo should grant the injunction because the state Supreme Court order to expunge contradicted an order Caputo himself made regarding records related to the civil suit. “This order tells me to get rid of documents you told me to retain,” Schneider said. Paperwork filed by Schneider as well as some of his opening arguments Friday leveled charges of bias against Special Master Arthur Grim – a senior judge appointed by the state supreme court to review the juvenile cases and make recommendations. But Caputo was bluntly curt on that point, saying he would not address the issue “so let’s abandon that right now.” Weiss, one of the lead attorneys for the parents and children in the civil suits, countered that no one has said the records in question have to be destroyed, and that the Supreme Court has neither cited the attorney nor ruled him in contempt of the order, so there is no immediate need for an injunction. He said he has sought clarification from the Supreme Court on its order, and accused Schneider of deliberately withholding even records that did not have any children’s names on them sought by the family’s attorneys. Schneider insisted he stopped turning over any records once the order to expunge was given, preferring to err on the side of caution. At one point, Caputo leaned forward and said to both attorneys: “Isn’t the simple answer to ask the Supreme Court to fix its order?” Schneider countered that there were other potential lawsuits not involving the attorneys in the courtroom which would also need the records. Attorneys representing Attorney Robert Powell and Developer Robert Mericle – the two men accused of making the payments – spoke in support of the injunction, noting they have no standing before the Supreme Court since they have no claim to the records, yet the records could be relevant in their defense as well. Mericle built the centers while Powell was one of the two original owners of them, though he has since sold his interest to his partner, Greg Zapala. Caputo made no ruling, but promised “I’ll be in touch with you shortly.” Lawyers: Orders on kids-for-cash records conflict each other Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes-Barre) By Dave Janoski June 5, 2010 http://citizensvoice.com/news/lawyers-orders-on-kids-for-cash-records-conflict-each-other-1.831670 WILKES-BARRE - Attorneys in civil-rights suits filed by hundreds of juveniles jailed in the kids-for-cash scandal tangled Friday over the enforcement of two seemingly contradictory orders issued by a federal judge and the state Supreme Court. U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo, presiding over the claims of former juvenile defendants who allege they were wrongfully imprisoned by a former judge accused of taking kickbacks from the former co-owner of two for-profit detention centers, has ordered all parties in the suit to preserve records that could be possible evidence. But the state Supreme Court, which has vacated about 6,500 juvenile court sentences handed down by the former Luzerne County judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., has issued orders to the companies that own and run the centers directing them to expunge the records of the former detainees. The court has also ordered the county juvenile court and juvenile probation department to expunge their records of those cases, but to maintain them under seal for use in the federal litigation. Appearing before Caputo on Friday, attorneys for PA Child Care, Western PA Child Care and Mid-Atlantic Youth Services, which own and operate the two centers in Pittston Township and Butler County and are among the defendants in the civil-rights suits, argued that the state Supreme Court order will force them to destroy treatment and financial records that might not be included in the county files. They include records of the time spent in the facilities by each of the former detainees and in some cases, records of counseling sessions or exercises in which detainees admitted to committing the crimes that landed them in detention. The records could be key to the companies' defense and counter juveniles' claims that they are eligible for damages for wrongful imprisonment, the companies' attorney, Bernard R. Schneider, told Caputo. Attorneys for the juveniles "are alleging kids were put away when they shouldn't have been put away," Schneider said. "If they did it, they don't get damages." Schneider argued that Caputo should issue an order taking over jurisdiction of the records from the state Supreme Court. Attorneys for the former juvenile defendants argued that Schneider and other attorneys for the companies were interpreting the expungement orders too broadly. They recently asked the state Supreme Court to clarify its order to conform to Caputo's ruling. The documents in that action have been sealed. Sol H. Weiss, one of the juveniles' attorneys, said he agreed the companies' records should be preserved, but noted the Supreme Court has not cited the companies for contempt for not destroying the records. He argued the federal court should leave it to the Supreme Court to clarify its own order. After hearing testimony about the records Friday from two officials from the detention-center companies and a consultant, Caputo said he will rule soon on whether he will intervene in the expungement issue. Ciavarella, who is representing himself in the civil-rights suits, did not attend. He is awaiting a criminal trial on racketeering charges. His co-defendant, former judge Michael T. Conahan, recently agreed to plead guilty. Ciavarella and Conahan are accused of accepting $2.8 million from a former co-owner of the centers, Robert J. Powell, and the contractor who built them, Robert Mericle. Powell, who sold his interest in the centers to his former partner in 2008, and Mericle have pleaded guilty and are expected to be prosecution witnesses at Ciavarella's trial. Ciavarella, Conahan, Powell, Mericle and several companies they own that have been implicated in the scandal are among the defendants in the civil-rights suits. 'Sexting' Leads To Child Porn Charges For Teens Associated Press (AP) – Harrisburg Bureau June 5, 2010 http://cbs3.com/topstories/sexting.child.porn.2.1735080.html At Susquenita High School, 15 miles outside of Harrisburg, Pa., eight students, ranging in age from 13 to 17, have learned a tough lesson about "sexting." "Take a photograph of yourself or somebody else nude and send it to somebody else, you've committed the crime," said Perry County District Attorney Charles Chenot, who has prosecuted two sexting cases involving a total of 10 minors in the past year. Chenot said he considers sexting a form of child pornography and wants kids to understand once those images are in someone else's hands they could wind up anywhere, even the Internet, possibly forever. The teens at Susquenita High, who all knew each other, were accused last fall of using their cell phones to take, send, or receive nude photos of each other and in one case a short video of a oral sex. That resulted in a felony pornography charge for each minor. "That was the only charge that really fits what they were doing," said Chenot. "What would have been the best thing to charge would be something that would have been a little less severe but would still draw these teenagers' attention to the wrongness of their acts." Former U.S. Rep. Don Bailey, a Harrisburg civil rights attorney, is skeptical. "Should they be crimes at all?" Bailey asked. "This is an over-zealous and inappropriate application of the criminal law." Bailey represents the lone student from Susquenita who has not pleaded guilty to lesser charges, which would require him to take a class on victimization and perform community service. After successfully completing the so-called "diversionary program" and a period of probation, those juvenile conviction records would be expunged, according to Chenot. "Are you going to stop kids from sexting that way?" Bailey asked. "Maybe you should try talking to mom and dad." At the state capitol in Harrisburg, freshman Rep. Seth Grove, R-York County, agrees. "My view is kids should not be held under the same laws as child predators," Grove said. His bill, which would limit the punishment for sexting, has passed the state House Judiciary Committee and is due for a full floor vote this month. "What we're trying to do is say: 'Let's not charge a felony, let's get a common sense law together that charges a misdemeanor,'" Grove said. Pennsylvania's proposed reform is typical of the 20 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, that have considered new sexting laws for minors during the past two years. Five states -- Arizona, Nebraska, North Dakota, Utah and Vermont -- have already adopted changes. "We need the appropriate punishment for the crime," Grove said. But some advocates object that sexting, especially between teens who consent to exchange the images, is considered a crime in the first place. "Why should we criminalize a kid for taking and possessing a photo of herself," said Marsha Levick, legal director of the non-profit Juvenile Law Center. "There is no problem that needs to be solved." How schools find out about the nude photos has also provoked a debate with some child advocates complaining that schools are on shaky legal footing when it comes to searching students' cell phones. A case in point pits a 19-year-old woman known as "NN" against Tunkhannock High School, her former school, near Scranton, Pa. She graduated last year. "I took semi-nude pictures of myself and saved them into my phone," NN told CBS News in an exclusive interview. When NN was still 17, a teacher confiscated her phone one morning because NN was talking on it before class. The school bans student cell phone usage on school grounds. Her principal, Gregory Ellsworth, then scrolled through the phone's digital photo album. "He told me that he found explicit photos on my phone and that he sent it away to a crime lab," NN said. "I was really embarrassed, humiliated, because it was personal." With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, NN sued the school last month seeking damages for invasion of privacy, accusing the school of violating her First Amendment right to free speech and her Fourth Amendment protection from illegal searches and seizure. "A search of the device is akin to browsing through someone's address and appointment book, opening and reading letters sent by U.S. mail, and rummaging through a family photo album or viewing home videos," the lawsuit says. Ellsworth had no comment. Michael Levin, an attorney for the school district, said, "I don't think any school district should tolerate kids bringing nude photos to school whether they be in electronic or paper format." Levin said Supreme Court rulings supported the school's actions. Besides being suspended from school for three days, NN also faced child pornography charges from the Wyoming County District Attorney. To avoid them, she agreed to a deal, like seven of the Susquenita defendants, submitting to a five-week course on violence and victimization, meeting twice a week. "If I was victimized, it was just like by my school," NN said. "I don't think by prosecuting them it's helping them at all." But Chenot, the Perry County district attorney, said he is just trying to protect kids. "Probably it's harmless when they take the pictures of each other and just share them between them, but the potential is there for there to be widespread distribution," said Chenot. "What we have here is a case where technology has gotten ahead of the laws."
June 6, 2010 http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/fix-state-jcb-1.832497 One of the ways in which the juvenile court scandal in Luzerne County spread far beyond the county border was its exposure of flaws in the statewide system for disciplining judges - a key element in the administration of justice. After former Luzerne County Judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella were accused by a federal grand jury of gross abuses of justice in juvenile court, the state Legislature, administration and judiciary formed the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice. Its mission was to examine the Luzerne County justice meltdown, beyond the scope of the criminal charges. That, it did. Its final report pointed out failures in many aspects of the county system. And, it spared no words in calling for sweeping reforms of the Judicial Conduct Board, an arm of the state Supreme Court that is responsible for judicial disciplinary cases. The commission's hearings revealed that the JCB had received and reviewed a detailed complaint against then-President Judge Conahan in 2006, but did nothing with it. That enabled the abuse of justice to continue in Luzerne County. "The commission has come to two inescapable conclusions," the report said. "The Judicial Conduct Board lacks sufficient oversight to assure that it is fulfilling its constitutional duties and obligations; and the existing confidentiality provisions relating to the work of the Judicial Conduct Board prohibit any meaningful oversight and accountability." After the commission exposed the JCB's failure to pursue the Conahan complaint, the JCB announced that it had changed some of its internal policies. The Interbranch Commission noted those changes but declared them "deficient" and inadequate to effect the needed reform. The Supreme Court has the administrative authority to implement some of the specific reforms recommended by the Interbranch Commission, including the appointment process for members. In the wake of the Luzerne County scandal, and the role of the JCB's failure to act against Mr. Conahan in prolonging it, the Supreme Court should do everything in its power to improve the disciplinary system for judges. Justice meltdown seen at all levels Directory: docs docs -> Application for acem docs -> Observational Assessment of Teaching Practices Teaching Assessment Initiative Proposal Submitted to The Teachers for a New Era project docs -> Traditional British values docs -> From Warfighters to Crimefighters: The Origins of Domestic Police Militarization docs -> Borzoi Club of America Register of Merit Program I. What is a Register Of Merit docs -> Protecting the rights of the child in the context of migration docs -> United Nations E/C. 12/Esp/5 docs -> 9th May 1950 the schuman declaration docs -> Getting To Outcomes® in Services for Homeless Veterans 10 Steps for Achieving Accountability Download 351.58 Kb. Share with your friends:
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