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Teenagers are committing more and more violent crimes.

In the last ten years,

number of murders by teenagers aged 14 to 17...

went up by

incredible 165%.

As a judge, if I have the opportunity

to prosecute a juvenile offender
as an adult, I will.

If You are a teen, convicted of murder, rape...

...or violence against children or the elderly,

You can expect me to impose the maximum sentence allowed by law.

Mark Ciavarella, a judge to protect us all.

Raise your right hand.

You, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., solemnly swear

who will support and defend the Constitution of the United States...

After Columbine, I went to schools

and explained to the students that we have a zero tolerance policy.

I instruct the parole department

not to tolerate violence in schools,

guns in schools,

and I didn't want drugs in schools.

Judge Ciavarella's policies win increasing praise

and community support.

I told them that schools

couldn't be ruined by 2% of young people

that destroyed for the other 98%.

I swear on the life of me I don't understand how that was such a bad thing.

I fought at school

and I knew there would be problems.

You can't fight.

I wish I could go back in time and start over.

I'm not a child anymore.

Life goes on.

That's what I tell myself, life goes on.

When groups like you come here to tour the court

and know what happens in Luzerne County,

he is always the highlight of the tour.

He is not only the judge, but he also takes care of

of all minor cases.

All the young people who come to court

are judged by Judge Ciavarella.

And he has a wonderful and important message for you this morning.

I present to you the Chief Justice of Luzerne County,

the illustrious Mark Ciavarella.

Judge.

Run

Thank you, Cathy. Good Morning.

It's a pleasure to be here today...

...and it's a pleasure to see each of you

and be able to send a message

which I hope you will listen.

I don't know what life has in store for you.

I don't know what life has in store for me from this moment on.

But I know there's only one person...

...one person in the whole world

who can control what happens to me.

That's me.

And there's only one person in your life

who can control what happens to you.

And that's You

Regardless of the past...

...regardless of the sins they committed,

you cannot go back and undo them.

Today you will have the opportunity...

...to experience

what happens to people in prison.

If you think it's worth it, I'll put you there.

My parents bought me a motorbike.

And it ended up being stolen.

They paid $250 for it.

I had it for two weeks.

I think someone saw me walking with her and recognized her,

and the police came to my house.

They read the serial number and discovered it was stolen.

It just so happened that I bought something that had been stolen.

I tried to say there was something wrong

and they said I was an overprotective mother.

I said, "I don't know what that means,

but I just want my son home."

I was 12 years old and I wanted to take my little brother to the bus stop.

When I was 12, I talked more than I should.

I fought with the mother of a little girl.

She said, "You shouldn't talk like that..."

She wasn't as nice as I am being.

School Incidence Report

We got into a big fight, you know, "F...you" nonstop.

You know, it passed. It was no big deal and I went to school.

When I arrived, my director came

and the first thing he said was:

"We have to search you."

I knew something was wrong when they took this child

and arrested him several times.

They never discussed guilt or innocence.

They just kept going. Nobody could do anything.

The person identified himself as Officer Rozitski

and said I was calling about my daughter, Hillary.

"She created a MySpace page and I'm going to arrest her."

Ed was drinking.

I remember Ed's dad telling me that

he knew that Ed was drinking at a teenage party.

He planned to go there with two policemen

who were his friends,

and they were going to go in, get Ed out of there

and put something on it that would get it caught...

...so that he would learn to stay in line.

Little did I know that we didn't have the right,

that he was in their custody.

I was in eighth grade, I was 13 years old.

A girl and I were friends.

She was calling me whore and whore,

saying "I hate you" and that we weren't friends anymore.

So I threw a volleyball at her.

When she passed by me,

she threw her hair in my face

and then I lost my cool, it's over.

We ended up fighting.

They took me to the office with the policeman,

called my father,

they told him to pick up his crazy daughter at school,

because she was causing trouble.

Your daughter was arrested for hitting a girl.

The case should not have passed the local magistrate,

if they weren't satisfied with suspending her for three days.

Convoca��o

Not for Juvenile Court.

And then find out it was all greed.

A girl pulled my father,

took my arm and said, "Come with me."

Judge Ciavarella,

he didn't even want to know anything about my side of the story.

JANUARY 14, 2005 - ADMISSION OCTOBER 16, 2009 - RELEASE

I was only 14 years old.

I couldn't believe what was happening.

I was terrified.

I cried in front of everyone in court for 30 minutes.

I remember him turning to me,

I will never forget that look.

Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella will stand trial today.

Prosecutors say he ruined young people's lives,

sending children to prisons for money.

Two Pennsylvania judges confessed...

... who received payments

to send adolescents to private detention centers.

Former judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan

arrived in federal court...

Accused of sending young...

...to private detention centers.

The evidence against the former judges

were compiled by the FBI.

In a scandal called "kids for money".

A kids-for-money scheme...

Corrupt judges receive bribes from the private sector.

$2.6 million in bribes.

For sentencing minors or prison.

Pennsylvania court rules out juvenile convictions

Guys, this is not a bribe,

I call it a court bonus.

Innocent to Profitable

Minor offenders, sometimes without a history...

corrupt judges

...were taken to these judges

...even for writing notes.

I don't deserve this. I'm not a criminal.

These people are wolves in sheep's clothing,

because children trust these people.

-The people of the country trusted him. -For sure.

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania January 2009

Times Leader, Terrie Morgan.

Okay, you have a press conference.

People are getting there now.

Judge Conahan and Judge Ciavarella called for plea agreements

for the federal government,

confessing to fraud in a tax evasion case.

For Ciavarella, the important thing was...

...that he had an obligation to speak to the youth before him

that he accepted money from the owner of the private detention center.

As he didn't do that,

he deprived the public of honest service.

Crime or punishment? Parents question Ciavarella's judgment

We interviewed Judge Ciavarella several times in 2004,

when we started researching what happened in the Juvenile Court.

We even went to one of the schools

while he was giving a presentation,

because he liked to do it.

He went to every school, every year, and said:

"If they commit a crime at school, I will arrest them."

That was his justification,

so when they appeared before him, no matter what the charge,

he would ask, "Were you there when I said that?" "Yes."

"Did you hear what I said?" "Yes."

"What I said?" "That you were going to arrest me."

"So what do you think will happen?"

"You gonna put me away"

"That's right. Get him out of here."

I'm shy, but once someone gets to know me,

finds out that I don't shut up and speak loudly.

And I'm very cynical and ironic

it's sarcastic and...

My goal is to be the funny one.

My friends and I started talking about how funny it would be

if we made a fake MySpace page

about the vice principal of the school.

Then we decided that we had to do this.

and that would be hilarious.

Female 28 years old CANADENSIS, Pennsylvania, United States

Hello. I'm the vice principal of the school...

I consider myself fun

outgoing and like to spend time reading silly magazines

and thinking about Johnny Depp in his underwear! Uh ll ll!

The policeman said that she was being accused of

internet abuse, terrorism and stalking...

...and theirs is a federal crime.

And I thought, "My God!"

I'm losing my mind.

I told the policeman that he wasn't going

talk to my daughter without a lawyer

and that's when he started screaming.

Speaking that mothers like me try to get their children to be released

and that is why we have bad children.

When I said I wouldn't use a lawyer,

he became calmer.

He said that if we cooperated,

we would receive the instructions in the mail.

And I thought, "He said if we cooperate,

everything will be fine."

When I got off the elevator, there were tables

and the woman gave me a leaf,

a form, blank.

She said, "Do you have a lawyer?" And I said, "No."

She said, "Sign here."

Okay, so I signed it.

We were taken straight to court.

The judge leaned across the table and shouted:

"What makes you think you can do that kind of shit?"

And I was holding Hillary's shoulder, so I felt her go back.

I whispered in her ear, "It's okay."

Things moved quickly at court.

About 60 seconds.

And when I was being handcuffed,

I heard my mother crying next to me

and the woman who was handcuffing me said:

"Look what you did to your mother."

And I was... I was completely confused.

What went through my head was: "They took my daughter away from me.

Her physical and legal custody was no longer mine.

And they will take her, is what that means."

I didn't know what to do. I was speechless.

And then I started making calls.

For the local public defender's office, for the state, for the governor's line.

They told me to call the ACLU,

and sent me to a woman at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

She said, "You're in Pennsylvania, I can't help you,

but I know great people

of the Philadelphia Juvenile Law Center."

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

We received a call from Laurene Transue,

m e of Hillary Transue,

which told an eerily familiar story.

Juvenile Law Center advancing the rights of minors in danger

We first met Judge Ciavarella in 1999.

We got a call from a mother...

...who contacted us about their 12-year-old son

who had been judged as an offender by Judge Ciavarella.

We are especially interested

due to the fact that he appeared without a lawyer,

violating their constitutional rights.

So we contest the judgment

and the Supreme Court overturned the young man's judgment as an offender.

We had the impression...

"I will never do it again," Ciavarella said of allowing a defendant to

don't have a lawyer.

...that Ciavarella learned.

But then we met Hillary Transue's mother,

how was Ciavarella,

and as it was an identical situation,

we wanted to understand if it was or not

a bigger problem.

And Hillary suggested it was.

She said, "I wasn't the only one in the place

who was tried without a lawyer."

We started to see state data.

The waiver fee for Luzerne County representation was

ten times higher than in the rest of the state.

So there were many children

without representation that they ended up arrested.

These were very important clues.

The question for us was:

"What was going on in Ciavarella's court?"

We investigated further and stayed outside the Juvenile Court.

We started listening to the children to find out what happened.

Several of them were imprisoned for very minor crimes.

Something was wrong.

I wanted to go to the top of the Times Leader building and shout:

"Somebody see what's going on here. Somebody see this."

When we mount the image

of what went on at Ciavarella's court,

we realize that

to such a promise by Ciavarella from 2001,

to respect the constitutional right to representation,

it was an empty promise.

We had to make a decision about

the legal measures are at our disposal.

We made a petition...

...at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to fix this.

For us, tidying up meant undoing

the sentence of these children

and delete them from their registry.

We didn't know about the problem of not having representation.

We only discovered this in 2008,

when the Center filed the petition.

We have been inundated with calls from parents saying:

"That happened to me too.

They said I didn't need a lawyer.

I walked in and within three minutes my son was chained up."

Parents get in touch

One story after another. I swear it was over and over again.

All independently told the same story.

As soon as we present

this request to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania,

we got a call from someone who said

work for the FBI.

It's not a call we get every day here at the Center.

But after speaking with Marsha and the team here

and learn how the juvenile justice system works

and what we thought was going on,

they got a search warrant and seized the records.

What they were interested in knowing from us was:

"What do you think is going on in Ciavarella's court?

How did you arrive at this conclusion?

It tells about violations of the right to representation."

She was a good girl, I have to admit.

She couldn't do everything she wanted.

She had an older brother and two older sisters.

They took care of her, but she was happy.

Yes.

She was not a sad girl. She was never depressed.

And she was a singer.

She was in the choir.

When I was little,

Amanda and her sister missed only one day of school.

My parents separated, but we still spent time together.

I was a straight A student.

Then I started not doing so well.

As I got older, I started being average,

I didn't pay as much attention.

I had a group of friends who weren't very...

that my parents didn't approve of,

but there was another group that

it was very positive for me.

At school, I tried hard to stay out of trouble,

but it didn't always work.

That's where it all started.

Raising the four boys wasn't easy, but we did a lot together.

We had difficulties,

I was single and had only one salary.

I remember we had family game night.

We played all night,

which I thought was really cool,

because people do that in commercials.

Then you think: "This is how it should be.

If you don't do this, it's wrong."

At the time, Justin was troubled, I was recently divorced.

He wasn't a bad kid.

He was just getting cocky.

Justin has always been busy. He was extremely smart.

He had a genius IQ when he was seven.

I started creating websites and liking computers.

But that was before I got arrested and all.

I think I lived a normal childhood.

I did everything every child does.

I grew up camping. Only in forests and things around here.

My favorite thing was being with my family.

It was the time he spent with them.

When Charlie went to school,

he wanted to go to school.

On the first day of school, he was

and came back and said, "I won't."

And he's had a lot of trouble since then.

There's a piece of skin that grows on the underside of the mouth,

he had grown to his teeth,

making him pronounce the vowels badly,

but every sound in the alphabet sounded bad.

When he left elementary school,

they placed him in the Plains Alternative Learning Center.

And that's where the problem started.

He would come home and say, "I shouldn't be there.

I don't know where I should be, but this school is not for me."

He would say, "Mother, these children are bad."

When I turned 14, things only got worse.

On the first day at court,

I already entered with a feeling

that something big and unexpected was going to happen.

I was already scared when I woke up in bed in the morning.

"Something is going to happen. I'm going to see a very powerful guy.

I can get hurt."

We arrived at the court building.

and it was full, with several people.

I didn't find anything out of the ordinary.

I thought I was going to go home and everything.

The dome inside the court is very large.

It's like it was made to make you feel small.

It was meant to scare me, and it worked.

We were there literally a minute and a half tops.

The judge already had everything in front of him.

He just looked at some papers and told me

that I was a problem child.

And I didn't think it was.

It wasn't just the bike.

Judge Ciavarella took into account

that Charlie had problems at school.

How did he speak?

"It seems that the parents have lost control of the child."

And he said, "I think it's time to get this kid back on track."

He said, "Camp Adams for 90 days."

And they handcuffed my son and took him away.

That was...

They shouldn't do this.

They shouldn't do that in front of their parents.

It was the most horrible thing.

I will never forget that part.

They made me kneel on a chair,

they lifted up my pants and handcuffed my legs.

There's a belt they use to fasten...

A belt, they tied it in the back and left me handcuffed

until we got to the place of detention, it was crazy.

I felt like an adult

going to a big prison.

If I'm 13

and I'm in gray sweatpants with cuffs on my hands and feet,

I feel like a very, very bad child.

While I had them in my hands, and I thought... I don't...

I was confused.

They put us in a van and took us to the LCJC.

Usually you see the grids first,

six-meter railings with barbed wire lines

as if I were a criminal, a murderer.

And that's how you feel. Do you think:

"I'm one of those people you see in movies."

I woke up in a nice bed with my family

and went to sleep with cockroaches and criminals.

When I entered a room, I had to look for cockroaches,

to make sure there were no cockroaches.

everything is dirty, with stains on the wall

and with echo, like in prison movies...

Through the cell blocks.

I was scared every day.

I was scared every day because I wasn't at home.

I hate the fact that I can't go to school.

That's what childhood is, growing up and going to school.

You never realize how much you miss your parents until you're away from them.

I felt like my heart was ripped out.

I was depressed.

You can't do anything, not even talk to anyone to come back earlier.

As you would in prison, you cannot post bail.

They treat you like a piece of shit.

They talk to you however they want.

All the kids look at you and think, "Who is he?

Will I have to worry?

Or can I get his stuff?"

I spoke to staff more than residents.

I felt safer because an employee wouldn't hit me.

At least not in that place.

There was a lot of physical training.

Run, do jumping jacks and such.

And you were in the cell almost all day.

I only go out to eat

three times a day.

For the first two weeks, I didn't even have a pillow.

You need to earn the pillow.

You just stay in that little room,

doing homework and everything read.

At the end of the sentence, a boy said: "I went home" and then:

"I brought some marijuana."

I was 12 years old, I had never tried it.

I was interested because, after three months with criminals,

you think, "Yeah, I do, man. I want to try it too."

It was the first one I tried on and I thought, "Wow, that's cool."

Not the getting high part, but the bonding part.

I wrote many letters.

Not letters, they were more, I don't know,

poetic things.

"Life brings us challenges that we need to overcome

"An Attitude of Love"

And sometimes the deviations can dull the senses

Life is full of blocks we pass along the way

But they can become a stepping stone when love is at stake.

When there is an obstacle that we need to overcome

It's good to overcome it with an attitude of love

Because anger doesn't solve anything and stress brings us down

But love opens the door where we find hope

Life brings us challenges that we need to overcome.

And blessed is he who can maintain an attitude of love."

I tried to write a letter to the judge.

I said: "I learned my lesson.

I never fought before.

I apologize. Can you give me another chance?"

I asked him to leave me under house arrest.

It said, "Can I stay on parole? I want to see my family.

This is strange to me." And I said all this to him.

I didn't get anything back.

I just gave up and served my sentence.

And then, four years of my life passed,

and it goes on and on.

Children were being sold for money

by former chief judge of Luzerne County

and Juvenile Court Judge Mark Ciavarella.

And we're talking about what happened to them

in the hands of that abusive judge.

I'm Corbett and you're listening to WILK AM, 103.1 FM.

Hello, judge.

Jim Avila told ABC News, 20/20.

people are thinking

like a man as distinguished as you

could have gotten into so much trouble

and sold these children?

Well, let's stop here.

I didn't sell children.

I clearly showed him the prosecutor's charges,

that he sentenced children for money.

It's not what you think.

Talk to people at Luzerne County Juvenile Court

and you will understand what I say.

This does not mean that you received dirty money.

Why put juvenile offenders on state Children's Assistance?

Yes, that's what it says.

We reached an agreement.

I will not confess anything related to earning money for children,

fraud, extortion, what for what? Absolutely no.

The judges initially asked prosecutors for a deal.

in January 2009.

And the agreement they signed

specified a sentence of 87 months.

FBI, IRS say child scheme embezzled $2.6 million

Ciaveralla, Conahan agrees to plead guilty

But during that period,

Ciavarella spoke publicly

who stood by his claim that he had done nothing wrong.

I specifically remember one time

when he was talking to a TV network,

he firmly maintained that he had never arrested a child for money.

It had always been for the young man's sake,

and he said so.

I watched, looked at my husband and said, "You know what?

That judge will reject the deal

because of what he said."

Good evening everyone, I'm Candice Kelly.

And I'm Drew Speier.

Ciavarella and Conahan were accused of orchestrating

what was considered one of the biggest judicial scandals ever seen,

but their requests for settlement were denied.

Now, the prosecution has registered a new case.

In February, Conahan and Ciavarella confessed to tax evasion

and were sentenced to a sentence of seven years.

In July, a federal judge overturned that agreement.

Conahan was called an obstructionist,

and the federal judge defends that Ciavarella denied his participation

in receiving money for the imprisonment of children.

Now they are accused of money laundering,

bribery, extortion, fraud and federal tax violations.

My customers are angry about everything, you know?

A guy who has one of the best jobs possible, a judge,

an honorable job, getting paid a lot of money.

I'm not even counting all the advantages, you know how it is?

Does he need to do this even though he has so many things?

This is pure greed.

He was a public servant. People trusted him.

And he took advantage of us,

this is very discouraging and revolting.

he took advantage

of children who may have made a mistake somewhere along the way.

He took it to the extreme, like that fight at a school.

We've all fought at school, you know what I mean?

Simple things they shouldn't be sent to the detention center for.

I've known Mark Ciavarella for a long time.

He was a decent person,

and I was shocked when I found out what was going on.

I think he was, I wouldn't say a victim,

but he got himself into a bad situation.

As the agreement was rejected,

he wasn't talking to the media.

He learned to be quiet.

Are you ready to go to prison, Mark?

I didn't tell my lawyer that I agreed with this documentary.

And maybe doing that will end up hurting me.

But I felt it was an opportunity for them to know what really happened.

I'm not some crazy judge who was throwing kids

and sending them away, arresting and handcuffing them.

Nobody saw the whole picture.

They only wanted to look at part of the picture.

All media focused on money for children.

If the cops wanted to accuse us of that,

they can accuse and we go to trial.

When Mark ran for judge, I didn't know him that well.

He took office in 1996.

Then we started to work together

and to develop a relationship and a friendship.

And we became very good friends and still are.

Mark was a strict judge...

...but the feedback I received when I was chief judge

from the police, parents,

superintendents in schools and directors

was that it was working.

He was doing a good job. No lawyer or anyone came to me

to say that Mark didn't do a good job as a judge,

or that he didn't have the best interests of the children in mind.

Ciavarella said: "I pleaded not guilty in the case.

I didn't arrest children for money."

But in fact, he never pleaded guilty in the case.

This is where the kids-for-money angle was born.

People saw that the judge sent children to a center.

He received money from the center.

They saw the facts and realized

that this was a simplification of what had happened.

Mark began talking about the dire conditions at the center,

went to the commissioners and said:

"We need to build a new detention center."

The commissioners said they would build a building,

but they wanted to wait until after the election.

The election passed. No buildings were being constructed.

From that point on, my goal was to have a center that was safe

and clean, a place where I would feel comfortable

if my children went there.

Judge Ciavarella came to see me one day and said:

"These guys are not going to build this thing. It will never get done.

You're good at getting investors together and getting things done.

So why don't you get investors together

to build a juvenile detention center to be used by the courts?"

I said, "Okay. I'll do it."

Judge Conahan was very qualified to enter into this agreement.

Trained in Finance,

in addition to being very rich and a shrewd businessman.

He had several businesses besides being a judge.

So Conahan decided he was going to look for investors,

including Robert Powell, a good friend of his...

...to see if they could raise money to build a private center

that they could offer the region.

Powell did it. Then it all comes back to Ciavarella.

He was good friends with Robert Mericle.

He had known him since Mericle was a child.

Mericle had a construction company

specializing in commercial contracts.

He suggested that Mericle send him a quote, and Mericle agreed.

He had the smallest budget, he won the contract

and built the center, which was owned by Powell and the others.

At some point, Robert Mericle walked into Ciavarella's office...

...and told him that he would pay a commission

because he recommended it.

Ciavarella single-handedly decided that

I was going to split it fifty-fifty with Judge Conahan.

His logic was that Judge Conahan was the one

worked out the whole business,

and he felt that he owed him half the money.

Rob Mericle won the contract, and after that...

...he told me, and I'll never forget it: "It's your lucky day."

Then he told me he was going to pay me a commission

and I asked him:

"Is this cool? Can you do this?"

And he said, "I always do that.

Whenever someone brings me a project, I pay a commission,

and I'll buy one for you."

It was 10% of the construction costs, US$ 2.2 million.

I'm really good at it. I'm a journalist. It's my job.

Now, from the Entercom radio studios in northeast Pennsylvania,

here is Corbett.

We are talking about justice. We are talking about lawyers.

We're talking kids for money.

Let's talk to Michelle. Michelle calling from Harveys Lake.

What do you think of this, Michelle?

I don't think the people involved

believed it was a commission.

When you pay a judge for something other than work

for which he receives,

this is a bribe. They call it a bribe.

They accepted approximately $2 million from Robert Mericle.

They said it was a commission.

Commissions are not illegal. There are several in real estate.

What happened to Ciavarella, illegality is

in the fact that he receives money and then takes court decisions

without notifying the people who appeared before him

that he received the money.

And he also did not declare the income he received

on that year's tax return.

He just admitted it.

He did not admit anything else connected with the children for money case.

The first amounts we received were paid to Beverage Marketing.

One of Mike Conahan's companies.

He said, "Look...

I'll pay taxes on that money."

Unfortunately for me, he never paid the taxes.

What I did ethically wrong was not mentioning Rob Mericle

in my ethics statement with the Supreme Court,

because I received income from an outside source.

Ciavarella delivers letter of resignation

That was wrong. I had two choices.

I could take the money and report it,

and if not, don't take it

I chose to take the money and not report it,

but I didn't think it was a crime.

Did I know I was doing something unethical? For sure.

And the downside is that my ethics weren't strong enough not to.

Ex-judge refuses to talk about

high juvenile detention rates during budget analysis.

I was worried about how people would view a judge

having received a commission from someone for the construction of the center.

That would not be well received.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a good story.

Money for kids was a better story.

Normally I would make a joke

about being that kind of music they play

at farewell parties for gangster lawyers,

but as we have Cliff Haines on the line,

the president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association,

I'll let this one go, Cliff. I won't speak.

I think they pleaded guilty

-For tax evasion. -Correct.

What does that mean? They did not confess for sending children

to an institution for minors in exchange for money.

The federal government can discuss with you

that they did just that.

Cliff Haines is president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

Don't go away, let's talk to him more. It's good that you listen.

The government said from day one

that was quid pro quo. Now Ciavarella was saying, "It's not true."

And we started to see

that this agreement was not going to work out very well,

As we wait, I don't eat.

I just know that the deal is off the table

and we must prepare for judgment.

Police say he sold children for money.

That's what the police said they would check

if the case went to trial.

Center for Juvenile Law.

I think what Ciavarella did was like putting on a toga

and set up a court in a garage.

When I got the call from Laurene Transue

and I heard what happened to her daughter,

who was in the second year of high school,

our first concern was getting Hillary out of the detention center

and annul the judgment of delinquency.

On the day of my new court hearing,

we went to Judge Ciavarella and said that

the original trial was not attended by a lawyer,

and that I did not know that I had waived my right of representation,

and that we needed another trial.

Ciavarella said, "Okay. You have a week."

On the night before my second hearing,

the Juvenile Law Center wanted a consent decree.

Defender of young people Center fights for justice

The decree of consent is like a conditional,

but the terms are negotiated

and at the end of the decree my record is erased.

Unfortunately, the victim also had to accept the consent decree.

That day at court, we walked in and Ciavarella said:

"Did the victim consent to this?

I think I'll take it, but you know I should say no

for you to learn a lesson."

He seemed determined to send me back.

The Price of Gossip

The failure around the country for to many years,

actually for decades,

that the centers use a quarantine model,

keeping the child away from your community

for a while, with different people

and believing that she would be cured of this behavior,

or at least she wouldn't behave like that at home,

and they would be better when they got back.

It doesn't happen automatically.

Putting a child away from home is not something natural,

when not a volunteer. It can be very traumatic

and this disrupts the normal development of the teenager.

They never let you out without parole.

I had problems at school. It was rough with teachers.

I didn't like to do homework,

and instead of saying, "Go to the director,"

said, "Go to the parole officer,"

because he was down there.

raped and detained without going to school

Things like me jumping a table in the cafeteria once,

and since my agent was at school, that was a violation.

As soon as I went downstairs, he would grab a pair of handcuffs and say:

"If you do that again, you will be detained until you are 21."

It's scary.

When someone says:

"If you do it again, you'll get eight years."

And I'm not even past puberty yet.

One of the disturbing things about the juvenile justice system is that

when children enter the system,

It's incredibly difficult for them to leave.

It has a mechanism that keeps children in the system.

If they leave the detention center, they are on parole.

There are numbers of kids around the country

that are caught during parole

are arrested again for technical parole violations.

It's a story that could go on for months,

but for years.

I needed to see Ciavarella's face so many times

that I could unravel it from memory.

Ciavarella is short,

but it has a table and a chair that are huge.

So I'm like this, my neck hurts when I try to look at him.

He sentenced me to Northwestern Academy, which is

military type, they scream in your face.

I'm 14, 13 years old, I said:

"Dude, what do you want? I jumped a table."

You don't take a 12-year-old child, put him with these criminals

and waits for her to leave saying:

"I will be an exemplary citizen."

No, she comes out knowing how to make explosives,

how to steal a place without getting caught.

These kids told me things I didn't need to know

12, 13, 14 years old.

I wanted to escape so badly that I started drawing.

The first word is in a cage because I was trapped.

It's like a cage all day.

The second is a footprint, the act of getting out.

I saw it as a three-step process.

And the last word has the lines of a flag,

firm and strong: "I am free now."

You're under arrest, get out, stay out.

When I was released, it was the greatest joy of my life.

When are you going to jump?

My God!

My son, Eddie, has always been wild.

At the age of two, he rode a bicycle without training wheels.

I didn't spend much time with Ed's father,

but he was always part of his life.

Ed was eight or nine

when the school said he had attention deficit.

He was on Ritalin. I didn't like how it affected him,

so we spent a lot of time on that.

I preferred him to be himself,

regardless of what we had to face...

...we would improve and he would learn that way.

Ed was always a good boy, respectful,

but when he grew up,

at 14, 15 years old, he drank.

What are you doing?

His grandmother told me that

Ed's dad was drinking and that Ed was drinking too.

I never found it appropriate.

"He needs you as a father, not a friend."

I became love and father.

The summer before senior year, I caught him running away.

to go out with friends, and his father saw him coming home

after drinking too much.

His father had the idea of calling two policemen,

his friends,

take the drugs that were at the party and put them in his truck

so that they would appear to be his possession.

We wanted the best for Ed.

No one would do anything to harm their own child.

I remember standing in front of the judge.

I just remember him saying:

"I will send you to the detention center

for you to think about what you did."

He entered there as a 17 year old free child

and he left there like a calloused man.

It didn't take long for him to get into a fight.

Since he was on probation,

he needed to get back to Judge Ciavarella.

Everyone said, "If you go back to him,

he'll lock you up until you're 21."

He wasn't even 18, so he ran away

to Florida.

He disappeared for about a month

and then returned home.

Two years passed and he was working in construction.

He looked happy again, back to normal,

but he still had Judge Ciavarella's warrant.

Ed was in a car accident.

Judge Ciavarella sentenced him to a detention center

and he stayed there with 13 and 14 year olds.

Ed left and all I saw from him was that he was so angry.

Ed got into another fight

and was charged with serious assault.

So he went to state prison.

Children are not little adults.

The notion that children who commit crimes

should be punished in the same way as adults

it ignores some fundamental points of what we know about children.

The part of their brain

which governs the ability to make decisions

and judgment is the last to develop,

and she continues to develop until she is in her early 20s.

The ability to make decisions is less developed.

Their notion of risk is significantly less developed

than that of an adult.

Their understanding of the consequences of their behavior

It is significantly less developed than that of an adult.

Two judges are being charged with crimes.

It is not for the commission to decide whether they are guilty or innocent.

Our focus is to develop recommendations

to improve Pennsylvania's juvenile justice system.

Our concern is the inaction of others.

Of those who knew, but did not speak.

Of those who saw, but did not act.

I was saying, "I'm the adult, trust me."

Because when we get to court, we can trust the policeman.

We can trust the judge

will do the right thing, be fair, use his authority properly.

And that's not what happened.

You swear to tell the truth,

only the truth, nothing but the truth?

-Yes. -Please sit.

When did you become a promoter?

-In 2004. Yes. -2004?

Who was the chief judge at the time?

It was Ciavarella.

According to the statistics we received,

approximately 54% of cases during this period

there were cases where there was no lawyer or he did not show up

to represent the young man at court.

Half had no representation?

While I was there,

the frequency of cases with and without lawyers was the same.

I'm the leading civil rights attorney for northeast Pennsylvania.

Judge Ciavarella orchestrated a waiver system

to encourage people to waive the right of representation

out of court without proper explanation.

It is unbelievable that number of people did not have lawyers.

We are talking about children.

So a child can sign a contract,

then the parents renounced the rights

because they were afraid,

because they were hearing that they didn't need a lawyer.

I said to my friend, "Dude, did you have a lawyer?"

And she said, "No, nobody has a lawyer."

And I said: "But you don't see Law and Order?

Everyone has lawyers, you should have a lawyer.

If not, you get one. That's not..."

She said, "I don't think it works that way for kids."

Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. of the case children for money resigns

while the court faces ill-judged cases and federal investigations.

I never denied direct to a lawyer.

I shouldn't say that. Just once.

Center seeks in-depth analysis of Ciavarella cases

Since then, if you came to court

and wanted a lawyer, everything was postponed.

That's why we had the waiver, so you could waive that right.

You read and signed.

In court I asked if I had signed. "Yes."

"Do You understand it ?"

"Right, thanks." And the trial followed.

In the juvenile court, justice was silent

It wasn't to try to get someone to confess.

He was not blamed, he was not.

Your constitutional rights are not absolute.

You can waive these rights.

When you resign, the question is

if the waiver was made consciously and voluntarily.

I became an assistant public defender in 1976.

And in 1980, I became chief public defender

and I have been Chief Public Defender since 1980.

For almost 30 years I have commanded the cabinet.

I knew there were a lot of kids there without representation.

However, I could only assume

that there were proper waivers being made,

who actually renounced representation.

They just had to say to the judge: "We want a lawyer",

and a lawyer would be there.

So it was very easy to get a lawyer,

but I can also say that Ciavarella commanded the court

without differentiating cases

in which children had representation or not.

He had them all arrested.

It was a school crime, could be the best lawyer there,

and the child would be taken.

How did you start working at the Juvenile Parole Office?

I applied when the vacancy opened.

And what vacancy was this?

Head of Juvenile Probation/Detention, Internal Administration.

What was your role in the audience?

We gave our recommendations to the judge.

Was there a written policy?

We had zero tolerance policies that the judge had formulated.

We got so paranoid and scared

let's not deal

with violence and problems in schools in a rigid way,

something really bad could happen.

The United States' Zero Tolerance Programs

were the result of shootings, murders like the one at Columbine in 1999.

Columbine's legacy: More policing in schools

We think we should have zero tolerance for bad behavior,

in such a way that when a child misbehaves,

she must be warned and taught how to behave.

Strong community equals less offenders

Establishing laws lessens threats, say school officials

Shootings leave area parents fearful of future

Zero tolerance relies on the idea of children being like adults

about how they can stop misbehaving.

And that if they know that they will be suspended, expelled or arrested

for a series of bad behaviors common in teenagers,

they stopped behaving like teenagers, which is ridiculous.

What we have in this country is a zero tolerance policy

based on a bully theory that does not apply to teenagers,

that suspends, expels and arrests

tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of children a year.

Certainly, after Columbine, everyone needed to stop and say:

"How do we protect our children?"

And, unfortunately, the word "risk" is always present.

I have been with the Wilkes-Barre Area School District for 41 years

in various positions and finally as a director.

I have been a director for approximately 15 years.

Without a doubt, we are here to educate children,

but the most important responsibility is to provide a safe environment.

No one wants to send their child

into an environment that does not seem safe.

What we've done in the last few years

went to hire a director of security.

We have three full-time police officers

in our school district.

We have introduced zero tolerance policies,

especially regarding security and things like that.

Zero tolerance has done a lot of damage to the United States.

We call it "zero logic, zero sense".

Leonard E. Weinglass Award for the Defense of Civil Liberties

July 2010

I think of shows like Scared Straight, Ciavarella used it

as a tool of intimidation.

Columbine played a big part in what happened.

Schools began to apply serious punishments,

and cases that were normally resolved informally

now they were going to the Juvenile Court.

What if I went to Juvenile Court with Mark Ciavarella

and you committed a crime at school, you went to juvenile detention.

Everyone assumes he arrested children for money.

But he had arrested children forever.

If you look at the rates,

dating back to 1996, when he took over the court,

his rate was very high, close to 20%.

It wasn't just after building a detention center for minors,

and this no doubt makes it difficult to know why he arrested young people,

but he held them ever since.

There were letters praising Judge Ciavarella for his philosophy.

Editorials in newspapers about what a great judge he was,

cleaning the schools, cleaning the streets.

I wanted kids to think I'm the biggest motherfucker in history.

I wanted them to be terrified.

when they had to talk to me.

Because I hoped that, because of that,

they would never again put themselves in a position

when they had to come back to me.

Leaving Your Mark

Family has a lot to do with why a child enters the system.

Ciavarella rigidity is a legal advantage

People don't know how to be good parents.

For me, the youth system was trying to teach kids to be responsible.

Ciavarella to lawbreakers: "You will be punished and imprisoned."

When I was growing up,

I didn't need the system to solve my problems.

My parents solved my problems.

I wanted to go back to the way my parents raised us.

They raised us with a lot of love and care, but a lot of discipline.

My father was very nervous, he lost his temper easily.

I was starting high school,

We had a few beers one night.

A friend said, "Why don't you get in the car and let's go for a drive?"

Happiness is being a being.

We were getting into the car

and I heard a voice say, "What are you doing?"

I saw my cousin and my friend running.

The policeman said to me: "You better come with me."

Soon after, juvenile detective John Gonas

said he would take me home.

As we were driving to the East End, I got more and more nauseous.

I entered the house. My mother called for my father.

He said to me, "What's the matter?"

I looked at my father and said: "We were going to steal..."

And I couldn't say the word.

He just looked at me and said, "Look at your mother."

She was hysterical.

She kept saying, "I can't believe my son is a criminal."

At that moment, my father began to prepare his fist.

I knew it was going to happen. He hit me, I passed out.

His point of view is that the arrests were part of

-of a well-thought-out judicial philosophy. -A rehabilitation program.

-Yes sir. -That you supported.

To a certain extent, I was supportive.

So you have no evidence to conclude that the arrests were made

for an illegitimate or illegal reason.

I don't think so.

Unless I'm very naive, I don't think he did.

Schools have a lot of influence

in sending complaints to the juvenile system.

We saw what happened at Columbine.

And I think there was a reaction across the country and across the world

which showed that we needed to be tougher with the kids.

Why was everyone willing to say

that there was zero tolerance for young people?

Because everyone loved it. Schools loved it.

They got rid of bad children.

When I was at school, when I spat,

you ended up in the principal's office and stayed there for a few hours.

In the last few years, he has spit

they called the police and people went to the juvenile court and were arrested.

Young people need to know clearly

that there is a consequence if they choose to break the law.

And the consequences need to be clear and immediate.

And I think that's the responsibility

of the juvenile justice system.

The reality is that we have seen a significant increase

no number of cases no juvenile justice system.

Before Columbine, when misconduct occurred in school,

we knew what the answer would be.

It would be a suspension. That would be after hours detention.

It would be a slap on the wrist, a notation in your log.

But since Columbine, there has been a movement to assume

that the juvenile justice system can manage any behavior.

This, of course, is an exaggeration.

It's a misuse of the juvenile court system.

It's getting common

have police and parole officers

at school or very close.

I don't agree with that.

You can't let one person mess things up.

to the point that everyone pays the price

for his inability to control himself.

If there was a policeman there, a parole officer,

It's almost like a challenge to students.

And I think this conveys the image of:

"We, as a school staff, the principal, don't know how to deal with you."

We're going to turn them on,

and we'll do it quickly if we think it's right.

When I went back to school, it got worse and worse.

The parole officer has his own office at the school.

Sitting in the parole office was humiliating.

big windows,

and everyone walking between classes.

And there you were, with the parole officer.

Respect yourself - Respect others Respect your school

Some teachers disrespected me.

And a lot of that came from the fact that:

"Well, she is one of the children sent to the detention center."

When I got back to school from the detention center,

the first month i was fine.

After that, I fought with the teachers.

I argued and got suspended.

I felt like the new girl, even though I wasn't,

because I already knew everyone.

But everyone asked me what I did, how I got arrested,

thinking this was cool, and for me it wasn't.

When I made a comment in class

because I was known as the joker and the loudmouth,

we were talking about a silly escape plan

in case someone came in with a gun and we needed to flee,

we would go to the courtyard and run away from school.

So I said, "You know what, follow the escape plan.

I'm everyone's friend

then the child will remember that I borrowed a pencil once."

The teacher took me to the counselor's room

and said I knew someone who was going to do a school shooting.

I didn't fit in, so I felt like I didn't belong.

First I told my father:

"It feels like there's something wrong with me.

I don't feel like I can be around people."

And he didn't believe me.

He thought it was an excuse not to go to school.

And I said, "Dad,

this is on my mind all the time.

And it makes me nervous around people. Really.

I'm not crazy, but something isn't right.

I cry and sometimes I can't breathe."

I said, "It's not me, something's wrong."

That's when I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress,

depression, severe anxiety and mood swings.

I was missing classes

and I ended up missing 78 days of the first year.

So I just stayed away.

In October, I returned home for good.

In all the years, I missed high school. I never graduated.

All birthdays before the most recent, age 19,

I spent it in some detention center.

I feel like it's my fault

It's my husband Charlie's and my fault that I lost five years of my life.

They should have been good years,

fun teenage years.

What can he talk about? From incarcerations?

Many people ask me

if I hold a grudge against the judge or something.

I don't.

I go on with my life.

It's what I think I should do.

Go to university and, I don't know, have a family.

So that's what I'm going to do.

The future looks good to me.

Newswatch 16 �s 23h.

Good evening, I'm Scott Schaffer.

We start the night with new news

on the Luzerne County corruption case,

a former judge agrees to plead guilty a second time.

Judge Conahan, would you say something about your guilty plea to the people?

I have no comments right now, Andy. Thanks.

Former Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan

admits that it was an important part of the children's money scheme.

Investigators say, and Conahan agrees,

that he and former judge Mark Ciavarella worked together

for the Pennsylvania Children's Assistance Center to be ready.

According to the prosecution, Judge Conahan, as chief judge,

did everything in his power to hide the bribery scheme.

Conahan pleads guilty to the plan

He had the public youth center closed.

Then he sent the young people to a private center

in which he was interested.

Michael Conahan will be defeated.

I told you he was a gangster judge, remember?

How long have I been saying, "Once a gangster, always a gangster"?

It all leads back to Conahan.

This guy was a district judge

and engaged in various questionable activities.

I'm looking at an ambulance company, liquor companies, strip clubs.

Conahan had business that went

distribution of beverages to ambulance companies.

If anyone knew how to put something together, it was him.

I started coming to Florida in 1979.

We loved coming here.

I retired in January 2008.

For the last year, I've been trying to come here as much as I can.

to clear my head and escape publicity

of northeastern Pennsylvania.

Take care of myself and be as discreet as possible.

There's a side of me that loves Luzerne County,

and I miss my family and my friends.

I realized that I made a mistake and I shouldn't have done what I did,

so I agreed to sign the agreement.

I shouldn't have done business with the juvenile detention center.

I'm willing to accept the consequences for that.

When they received the money, they tried hard

to hide how they got it and what it was for.

Mericle wrote a commission agreement

in which he paid a commission

to Robert Powell, who was the lawyer.

Then they would send the money to another bank account,

which I believe was in Susquehanna County.

The money from there was transferred

for businesses controlled by Conahan.

One of those businesses was Beverage Marketing,

a liquor distributor from Conahan.

And again, through a series of financial transactions,

the money was paid

and sent to bank accounts controlled by Conahan and Ciavarella.

It all came back to Beverage Marketing.

And he recorded that in his financial statements.

I don't think any amount that went into Beverage Marketing was wrong.

If it was a commission and the amount entered,

either at Beverage Marketing,

whether in my name,

whether I gave it to you or to charity,

I don't see this as a form of tax evasion.

Several people make transfers, write checks, it's normal in business.

Conahan had immense power.

He decided he was going to remove funds from the government budget

to the juvenile detention center

and that it would be closed.

Everyone knew at the time

that Ciavarella was a strict, zero-tolerance judge,

and that he had high shipping rates for arrest.

Even so, the banks were afraid

in funding this new juvenile detention center.

The next thing Conahan did

went to sign a secret agreement with Robert Powell,

which essentially guaranteed that young people would be sent to the centre.

I think that, in general, it was Conahan who ran the plan.

Police say Conahan ran the show

And Ciavarella just followed him.

He and I participated in the scheme

to set up the kickback scheme.

Ciavarella was not convinced by Conahan

I wouldn't mind so much if you hadn't lied to me.

Let's put it like this. Every time it seems like it won't get any worse,

-it gets worse. - It gets worse.

I made a mistake accepting payment when I was a judge.

That's the problem.

The government told me:

"There was an extrajudicial payment.

You shouldn't have accepted it.

It was an ethical violation. A corrupt act.

Let's call it a donation. You will admit that it was a donation.

So it would be a bribe."

He told me that when he pleaded guilty,

he would not agree with facts involving kickbacks or bribery.

Children for money, nothing. It's him...

The first document they sent him

it was just about a bribe or kickback scheme,

and he signed it.

There is no truth to the scheme. There was no blueprint.

I just don't understand how he could tell me something

and do something completely different.

If that's the last thing I need to admit to doing,

I can live with it.

I can justify it in my head.

I think my father is still delusional about Mike Conahan.

He is the puppet master with the strings,

and my dad was on the wire, just swinging.

I believe there was something the government knew

About Mike Conahan.

I must say that he had a different life than my father.

If I feel betrayed? For sure.

Do I feel like I was lied to? Definitely.

Can I believe what Mike did to me? No, I can't.

But the reality is that he did and now I have to live with it.

Judge, have you been praying the last few days?

I try to take it one day at a time,

one problem at a time.

And I know in my heart that I didn't do what these people are talking about.

And since I know I didn't do what they're saying,

I can live with myself and I can live with the result.

I'd rather risk going to prison for the rest of my life

instead of admitting that I did something that I didn't.

At the time of judgment, everyone will know

that I never sent a child for a coin.

And everyone will know it.

-Good luck honey. -Thanks.

-I love you. -I love you.

Why is he on trial?

if we know that he is guilty?

Yes, but you don't believe he has the right to defend himself?

This is the base of the United States.

What you are saying does not go against

everything we believe in America?

No, he is guilty.

High security for a defendant who is not in custody,

here in federal court in Scranton.

Here's Former Judge Mark Ciavarella and His Lawyers and Files

entering federal court in downtown Scranton.

Ciavarella was indicted for participating

in the kids-for-money scheme two years ago.

Jury selection is starting here this morning.

In the opening, I thought of presenting the conflicting frames

of those guys who were lucky

of someone coming along and wanting to give them $1 million.

"...not knowing that it was illegal."

"...and I didn't need to declare it."

They didn't know it was wrong. It's almost a joke.

Ciavarella always defended that there was no scheme.

It wasn't about kids for money, it wasn't being judged for it.

He was being judged on monetary transactions.

And the government explained that it had legal and strategic reasons

not to address this aspect.

They had clear evidence of monetary transactions,

and that would be enough for condemnation,

therefore opted for this approach.

Was that from the scheme?

Who else could say besides Mark Ciavarella?

But the public would never agree that it wasn't.

I know that a good part of the public is disappointed

for Mark Ciavarella not being charged with the children's money scheme.

And that would allow

Mark Ciavarella used evidence that he was not selling kids

for cash, but he did this before.

Or that some families thought he had done the right thing.

This would create an unpleasant situation.

So it looks like the prosecutor made the decision

to charge him with financial crimes.

Because if Mark Ciavarella went to prison for 12 or 15 years,

for how many years it was,

what is the difference between being for financial crimes

or for something else?

Whenever I leave the court,

a reporter asked me, "Do you have anything to say to the kids?"

Right.

"The children you arrested?"

I never answered.

I'd say, "I did what I thought was best for you.

Sorry for not giving a better example.

about how you should live your life.

But when I made decisions that affected his life,

I did what I thought was best for you."

The public corruption trial in federal court in Scranton...

...from former Chief Justice of Luzerne County, Mark Ciavarella...

...will be closed today.

They are still there. They finished reading the charges.

I don't think he'll be in custody.

Former Judge Mark Ciavarella...

...is still in court number one on the fourth floor,

where he has been for ten days since the start of the trial,

now it's former convicted judge Mark Ciavarella.

I guess the calm after the storm...

...mixed verdict, but at the end of the day, he's guilty of very serious crimes.

Tony!

How do you feel?

We are amazed.

The juries rejected 95% of the public case.

They rejected most theories of kickbacks and bribery.

The government lost the case today,

and it just goes to show that what Mark Ciavarella has been saying all this time is true.

He never took bribes. He never took a bribe.

This is not a case of kids for money.

We hope that someone starts to understand this message!

-My son is not here! -Madam!

My son is not here. He's dead!

He ruined my life!

I want him to burn in hellfire!

No, do you know what he told the court?

"You need to take responsibility for your actions!"

It's you who needs it! Do you remember me?

Do you remember me? Remember my son, an award-winning fighter?

He's gone! He shot himself through the heart!

You damn! You ruined my life!

I hate him!

...suicide.

-Someone better do something with him! -We will.

-What was your first reaction? -Mark Ciavarella,

guilty of 12 of 39 federal offenses.

Judgment day has arrived and Mark Ciavarella is going to hell.

-Are you still getting your pension? -Cry, you asshole.

Ciavarella was found guilty of extortion, mail fraud,

money laundering, conspiracy and falsifying tax returns.

The jury found the former judge not guilty of 27 counts,

including fraud, taking bribes,

five instances of money laundering and extortion.

I was disappointed they didn't blame him for more accusations,

but i think it was enough

to lock him up for 10 to 15 years at least.

Ciavarella guilty of extortion

He is 60 years old, if he takes 15 years,

he will be 75.

Unless he leaves for good behavior and all.

Maybe now he sees

what it's like to be separated from your family.

And this mother?

-Sad, I feel bad for her. -Yes.

-Her son committed suicide. -Yes.

He shot himself in the heart.

January 2010,

Ed was released from state prison.

He returned home for five months, managed to stay.

It was Memorial Day.

Ed was at the top of the mountain with his father.

Vitria de Kenzakoski.

They drank all day, as usual.

He shouldn't be drinking, he was on probation.

He was fighting with his father.

I was talking to him, asking to come:

"You have work tomorrow, come to sleep."

"No! I will... I want to be closer to work."

And he ended up going to his cabin by the water.

He took a gun and shot himself in the heart.

It's all hearts.

I talked to Ed and said that

I was struggling and needed a sign that he is with me.

I was walking and my foot hit something,

I automatically bent down to pick it up.

When I picked it up, I thought:

"That looks like a crooked heart."

Then I turned and that was it.

This one I found in the park.

And this is just a smooth round stone with a heart.

It looks like it was recorded there. I found this one in the water.

No matter how many signals I get, I still miss his voice.

I miss hearing the word "mother".

I miss his smile.

I miss talking to him.

I miss everything, vacations, holidays and...

It wasn't like we had a grand life.

Most of the money I received I used to send my children to school,

pay some debts.

And now here I am, 60 years old...

...with nothing,

living with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law.

I had difficulties, you know: "Why did I take this money?"

I don't know if it was necessarily greed that made me accept it.

I think it was more a feeling of financial security.

All the things you want to do with your kids,

I had the opportunity to do it because I was going to receive that money.

And...

I destroyed my life because of this.

Can you lift your head, Marco?

-Lift your head for photos. - Party hat.

- Party hat. -Just for the pictures, buddy.

I have a grandson who will be two in July.

Everything is fine.

I have a grandson on the way.

have a good chance

of these children not knowing me personally.

They'll probably only know me from stories and pictures or...

I hope they understand

that I wasn't as bad as people say.

I hope they understand that their grandfather

made a serious mistake.

And...

You can't be part of their lives because of that.

...difficult.

What do they end up knowing?

It's just that their grandfather was a terrible person.

Today I stand before you to hear my sentence of imprisonment.

I want to take this opportunity

to apologize to the citizens of Luzerne County

for violating their trust in me.

To all the young people who appeared before me,

I would also apologize to them,

and would ask if they would forgive me for being a hypocrite.

I hope they learn from my mistake

and realize that everything we do in life has consequences.

I was sentenced for a crime I never committed.

There was no connection between the money I received

and children placed in Child Care.

But today, I'm here to be guilty as a judge of children for money.

Those three words made me the personification of evil.

They caused a public commotion,

of a size that this community had never seen.

I lost everything I worked for and everything I loved.

But I will never lose my strength

to fight against those who say that I received money to imprison children,

because I never got it.

Ironic....

let this sentence be for the crimes I committed,

and not for a crime or crimes I didn't commit.

Thanks for the opportunity to say what I needed to say.

What can you tell us?

We will definitely try a appeal.

Family applaud sentence

There are journalists who live to have a story like that.

But it is distressing that this happened in your region

and with people you know.

That day with Sandy Fonzo, I...

The Judgment of the Century

It was devastating to hear her speak. It was heartbreaking.

I see her picture on the front page.

Of all, this is the thing I will remember the most.

of those two years.

The next day, my phone wouldn't stop ringing, multiple messages.

This went on every day for weeks.

Different groups of lawyers.

Several people telling me: "This happened to me",

and "Please help me."

You know, I felt overwhelmed.

I'm not a lawyer, I'm not...

I can only do what I did.

In honor of Ed, his mother Sandy became an advocate

of changes within the juvenile justice system.

No one listened because they were children.

Even though sometimes I was in detention

and think, "This is unfair.

I hate authorities. I hate judges and police and all.

I hate our legal system."

And I ended up being saved by the legal system.

There are people who are still good

and they can serve justice properly.

Something so negative can change.

Hillary graduated from university and plans to become an English teacher

focusing on children at risk.

At almost 22 years old, I'm still not in school.

I find it a little embarrassing.

What I want to do is study Music

na Berklee College of Music.

Of all music schools, it is the most prestigious.

You need to be the best of the best to get in there.

I want to be a musician.

In North Central there was a program:

If I was 17, I could do high school and not go to high school,

and for someone aged 17, not going to school is too much.

I regret having done this.

Because everyone I know is going to university.

Stayed in high school, got good grades

and now they have more options than me.

Justin lives with his mother, works as a cook and writes songs.

He hopes to study Music.

If I hadn't been homeschooled, I would have dropped out of school.

I'm still graduating from the same school.

I still go to school to graduate.

I fixed my hair and started to get nervous.

I think I'm going to throw up.

I'm taking medicine to not go crazy and stuff.

I get a cold sweat and everything,

because there will be many people there

and I am very nervous about them.

I'm glad I made it to the end.

I didn't think I was going to graduate.

My mother, my father and my sister

kept giving me confidence:

"Amanda, get your voice."

They haven't given up on me.

I'm my father's only daughter to graduate.

Amanda Lorah.

I was nervous on stage.

Afterwards, I relaxed.

It's the best feeling in the world, I've never felt this before.

I think I'm going to cry with joy.

Amanda lives in California with her father.

She still suffers from post-traumatic stress.

Sometimes I think the choices I made were...

They were wrong.

I didn't do the best I could.

And that's horrible, I see your picture

and I know that you are here.

They accused me of using a credit card, which I used.

It belonged to my grandfather and his wife.

The charges I received were 31 instances of fraud

by using your credit card, of course.

And one for receiving stolen property for being in his possession.

I don't remember doing that.

I was finished drinking.

And we weren't drinking, we were smoking marijuana, taking pills.

It was all heavy. She needed to find a job.

I was 18 years old.

While I was detained, they never let me, you know...

They don't teach you what to do in the real world.

I think it would have been nice to have had help.

Maybe it's good I'm here, I don't know.