SCRANTON - The parents of children locked up by Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. as part of a $2.8 million kids-for-cash racket cheered when the prosecutors who sent the former Luzerne County judge to prison for 28 years emerged from a federal courthouse Thursday.
Several crowded around lead prosecutor Gordon Zubrod to shake his hand and offer thanks. It was Zubrod who had forcefully argued in court Thursday that Ciavarella should receive a sentence "that will keep him in prison for the rest of his natural life" for taking payments from two for-profit detention centers.
Ciavarella, who was placed in federal custody immediately after his sentencing, will be 85 if he lives to his earliest possible release date, with time off for good behavior, in June 2035.
"Full justice was done," Zubrod told the media. "We got what we requested."
Ciavarella's attorneys say they will appeal the sentence and his conviction in the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
More than 200 people crammed the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Edwin M. Kosik and an overflow courtroom equipped with a live video feed to witness Thursday's sentencing. Dozens wore white T-shirts bearing a picture of Edward R. Kenzakoski III, who committed suicide in what his mother described as downward spiral following his incarceration by Ciavarella on a minor drug charge.
Ciavarella, 61, showed no emotion when Kosik announced the sentence. The tense courtroom, watched over by a phalanx of anxious U.S. marshals, was quiet.
In a statement to the court prior to sentencing, Ciavarella attacked the prosecution and Zubrod in particular, arguing they had sullied his reputation with "kids-for-cash" allegations, but failed to prove that he had taken money for incarcerating juveniles.
Ciavarella told Kosik he agreed to plead guilty to fraud and tax charges in the case in 2009 based on the understanding that he would not admit to taking kickbacks or bribes for jailing juveniles.
"After my plea was presented to you for your consideration and acceptance or rejection, Attorney Zubrod made a statement to the press and uttered three words that changed the whole tenor of this case," Ciavarella told Kosik. "As we all know those words were 'kids for cash.'
"Those three words made me the personification of evil. They made me the Anti-Christ and the devil."
In subsequent public statements, Ciavarella denied portions of the government's case, leading Kosik to reject the plea agreement, which would have sent Ciavarella and a co-defendant, former Judge Michael T. Conahan, to prison for about seven years.
Ciavarella said the "kids-for-cash" allegation drove him to fight the charges and demand a trial.
"I am about to lose the physical presence of my family, a loss which is almost unbearable to shoulder," Ciavarella told the court. "But I will never lose my will to fight against individuals who say I took cash to put children in placement when I never did."
During Ciavarella's trial in February, the government offered no testimony from juvenile offenders who appeared in his court, concentrating on payments Ciavarella and Conahan received from Robert K. Mericle and Robert J. Powell, the builder and co-owner of the detention centers.
Prosecutors said their case did not involve allegations that the two judges received specific payments for placing individual juveniles in specific detention centers. Rather, it focused on the overall scheme, which corrupted the entire juvenile court system.
"The defendant argues he didn't sell juveniles retail and we agree with that," Zubrod told the court Thursday. "He was selling them wholesale."
The state Supreme Court has vacated 4,000 to 5,000 cases handled by Ciavarella, finding he jailed juveniles on minor charges after cursory hearings, failed to fully inform them of their right to counsel and set court policies that swelled the number of detentions.
The prosecution maintained those juveniles should still be considered victims in the federal case, even if most of them were not placed in the two centers co-owned by Powell.
"I don't think Ciavarella or Conahan themselves really personally cared where the juveniles went as long as they could use their power to place the juveniles as leverage or control over Mericle and Powell," U.S. Attorney Peter J. Smith said after Thursday's sentencing.
The sheer number of victims, coupled with other factors in Ciavarella's case, inflated his sentencing score under federal guidelines, making him eligible for a life sentence.
Ciavarella was accompanied to court Thursday by his wife Cindy, two daughters and about 20 other relatives and supporters. They declined comment Thursday as marshals escorted them to a courthouse exit.
It could not be determined Thursday where Ciavarella was being held.
In addition to the prison sentence, Ciavarella was ordered to pay $1.17 million in restitution to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the IRS, but testimony at his trial indicated he is heavily in debt and would probably be unable to pay.
Defense attorney Al Flora Jr. said Ciavarella will appeal his conviction on most of the counts against him, but not on tax charges to which he admitted guilt during his trial.
Under Kosik's sentence, Ciavarella is to serve a 20-year sentence on racketeering and conspiracy charges that will be the subject of appeal, followed by a five-year sentence on a tax conspiracy charge, followed by a three-year sentence for filing false tax returns.