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Originally posted by Kwicko:

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Originally posted by Bytemite:

I responded to the confidentiality thing, I think it's a load of bull that we give CPS the benefit of the doubt. They are public servants. They are not allowed to operate with no transparency. If they must, if there are privacy issues to consider, they can use TACT, but the blue code on their part is unacceptable. Heck, the blue code in ANY public service organization is unacceptable.

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^This. And it's becoming the norm. Ask about our security theater apparatus, and you'll get shouted down with claims that you can't know about it, because of "NATIONAL SECURITY!" And it's spreading through every agency, bit by bit. You can't know about CPS because of confidentiality issues. You can't film the police because they passed a law that says you can't. Rather than just do their fucking jobs the right way in the first place, the norm now is to just make it illegal for you to ask if they're breaking the law.

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I've been to Family Court a few times over the years, but it was never a place where I felt at home. Everything about it felt wrong, from the essential absence of anything remotely resembling rights, to the way everyone in the room talked down to children as if they existed so every adult in the room could lecture them. The one aspect of Family Court that I never gave much thought was that the courtrooms were closed.

Closed courtrooms in criminal court are bad, where the constitutional right to a public trial is violated by the secret happenings behind closed doors. The only time they were allowed to throw everybody out and close the courtroom was when the undercover took the stand, and then only when he remained active and could articulate a threat, either to him or his assignment. When the prosecutor asked that the courtroom be closed, we fought it. No star chamber would be allowed without a fight.

Somehow, this never translated to Family Court. I never gave it any thought, as it seemed appropriate when the subject was children that their identities not be made public, that their future not be burned for something that happened when they thought like a child. I was wrong.

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But it isn't all that was happening in Luzerne County, as unbelievable as that may seem. This place is a judicial cesspool, and the only reason there hasn't been an overwhelming outcry is that Ciavarella and Conahan were such outrageous criminals that they dwarf pretty much any other impropriety one can think of. That doesn't make Judge Michael T. Toole look any better, however, and it would be wrong to ignore his misconduct just because it didn't rise to the level of his fellow judges.
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And if this plain vanilla corruption isn't enough to make you angry, consider this: Toole entered into his plea agreement on September 25, yet continued to sit on the bench as a judge. Let that one sink in. The judge signed a plea agreement and continued as a judge for months.

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The decision means all convictions within that time frame will be vacated and the records of the juveniles expunged, or erased. Prosecutors also were barred from retrying any juveniles other than those that remain incarcerated or owe restitution or fines.
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That leaves about 100 cases that may be reopened - serious offenses in which the defendant was represented by counsel, and is either still incarcerated or involved in the juvenile justice system through probation, treatment, or unpaid fines or restitution.
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Though it's likely true that there were guilty amongst the abused innocent or trivial cases that resulted in incarceration, the District Attorney's argument is disingenuous. Where was Carroll's concern for justice when Ciavarella and Conahan were tossing kids in jail for staying out past curfew? Their scheme went on for five years right in front of the District Attorney's nose, and no one gave a damn. Now they are true seekers of justice? Too little too late.
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While the effort to retry these children doesn't come after an acquittal, it does come after a "travesty of justice" dismissal and vacation of the convictions. That these scum judges crimes have reduced every case before them to a nullity, the children who remain under court supervision aren't to blame for the fact that these judges were able to perpetrate their crimes for years without interference from the District Attorney.

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