SCRANTON - Robert J. Powell's transformation from a corrupt political power broker to a government informant was "vital" to prosecutions that sent three Luzerne County judges to jail and merited the reduced sentence of 18 months in prison he received from a federal judge Friday, prosecutors said.
Powell, who agreed to secretly record incriminating conversations with the judges after he learned he was a target in a grand jury probe, provided assistance in the prosecutions of two other highly placed elected officials, prosecutors said.
"That was very important in the process of cracking the shell around the cabal and the climate of corruption that seemed to pervade Luzerne County particularly in regard to the operations of certain judges," U.S. Attorney Peter J. Smith told the news media after Friday's sentencing. "Without Mr. Powell's vital cooperation, it might have been a much more difficult, much longer, if not impossible, process."
Powell, the former co-owner of two for-profit detention centers, faced up to 5 1/2 years in prison for paying $770,000 in kickbacks to two former judges who sent juveniles to the centers, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan. Federal sentencing guidelines called for a sentence of 27 to 33 months but prosecutors recommended a reduced sentence between 12 and 18 months because of Powell's cooperation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod told the court that Powell approached prosecutors in 2008 after he learned he was a target in the kids-for-cash case and agreed to cooperate without a prior agreement on the charges or sentence he might face.
Powell, 52, testified at Ciavarella's trial, which ended with 12 convictions and a 28-year prison sentence. His recordings of Conahan convinced the former president judge to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge that landed him in prison for 17 1/2 years, Zubrod said.
"There was nowhere for Mr. Conahan to go after his conversations with Mr. Powell," Zubrod said.
Zubrod revealed for the first time Friday that Powell secretly recorded former Judge Michael T. Toole, who is serving 2 1/2 years in prison for failing to pay taxes on a $30,000 referral fee he received from Powell and bribery.
Powell also provided information on former Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak and former Wilkes-Barre Area school board member Brian Dunn, who are each serving corruption-related prison sentences, Powell's attorney, Joseph D'Andrea, told the court.
The federal government has prosecuted more than 30 local government officials, employees and contractors in a wide-ranging corruption probe over the past three years.