Plaintiffs testify in ‘Kids for Cash’ hearing
WILKES-BARRE — For the next two weeks, hundreds of plaintiffs will testify about the ways in which they were affected by the actions of disgraced former county judges Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael Conahan.
The testimony comes as the plaintiffs describe in painful details the ways in which their lives were derailed by the so-called “Kids for Cash” scheme, wherein federal prosecutors accused Ciavarella and Conahan of accepting nearly $3 million in exchange for sending juvenile defendants to for-profit detention centers.
Other defendants in the civil lawsuit — namely PA Child Care, its former owner Robert Powell and building developer Robert Mericle and Mericle Construction — have all settled with the plaintiffs, leaving only Conahan and Ciavarella as defendants in the suit.
But neither Conahan nor Ciaveralla were in attendance during the beginning of the hearing on Monday, as both had waived their right to participate in the hearing.
Due to this, Monday’s hearing almost felt like a long-awaited venting session, as the plaintiffs were only questioned by Colleen Swiers and Sol Weiss of the Philadelphia-based Anopol Weiss, with no cross-examination.
During his opening statement, Weiss told U.S. District Judge Christopher C. Conner that the disgraced judges used their ill-gotten gains to nearly triple the income they would normally have received as county judges, and that the hundreds of plaintiffs would tell him about what happened to them as a result.
“They will graphically relay their horror stories in a poignant, meaningful way,” Weiss said.
Plaintiffs were called in alphabetical order.
Mark Aguilar was one of the first to testify on Monday, and he said he was one of the many people sentenced as a juvenile by Ciavarella. He said that his time locked up left him a different person, more aggressive and anxious than he used to be.
Aguilar said he was anxious about the possibility of confronting Ciavarella on Monday.
“I felt nervous coming here. I thought I was gonna see him today,” he said. “I started shaking. But he’s just another man.
“He took my whole childhood away,” he went on. “All of it.”
Aguilar said that he has since worked hard to get his life back on track, seeing counselors to deal with his issues and starting his own business. But he said, even though he’s now been out of jail for eight years, he still struggles with anxiety around large groups of people.
“I feel comfortable in there, not out here,” he said. “And it shouldn’t be like that.”
Paquale Allabaugh was another plaintiff who said he spent almost two years locked up after being sentenced by Ciavarella when he was 16.
According to Allabaugh, he was locked up after getting into a fist fight with another juvenile, suggesting that it was just something that kids do, rather than a real, serious fight.
“How can someone go away for two years over a fight?” Allabaugh said.
Allabaugh said that being locked up did nothing to help him; if anything, it made things worse for him.
“I learned how to become a criminal,” he said. “I should’ve been going to prom. Those were supposed to be some of the best years of my life.
“Instead I was learning how to sharpen a toothbrush,” he said.
Nicholas Barbose said he initially got into trouble for having a small amount of marijuana on him. He said he was sentenced by Ciavarella after a hearing that lasted, according to him, for exactly 42 seconds.
“I remember that number because it’s my grandfather’s favorite baseball player, Jackie Robinson,” Barbose said. “I hate that number. Because that’s how long it took him to decide to lock me up for 10 months.”
Barbose said that, as a result of his time locked up, he was eventually diagnosed with PTSD, commenting that it’s ironic that he has since been prescribed medical marijuana for the mental illness, when it is the same substance that got him in trouble to begin with.
He said he has become distrusting of the entire legal process, including the hearing he was taking part in.
“One of these days, hopefully all of this will be over,” he said.
The hearing is expected to continue, likely in much the same way, for the remainder of this week and next week.
Ciavarella, 71, is currently a few years into a nearly 30-year sentence after being convicted on honest services mail fraud charges; Conahan, 69, pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and was sentenced to spend nearly 18 years in prison. Conahan has been released for home confinement as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
