Commission to investigate judge scandal
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
A Commission charged with investigating the Luzerne County judicial corruption scandal began its work Wednesday.
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The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice will spend the coming months digging into the Luzerne County scandal, where two judges received millions of dollars in kickbacks for shuffling juvenile offenders off to private detention centers.
Luzene County President Judge Chester Muroski testified before the Commission in Harrisburg.
Muroski, who first passed along suspicions to the FBI in 2005, says no one in the county had any idea Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were being paid to put children in custody.
Muroski: So absent the labyrinth that has been discovered by the IRS, FBI, whoever did all that, the only thing we know was some of this stuff that was going down in the courtroom. We didn't know anything about money, we didn't know anything about finder's fees. We didn't know anything about Miracle. We just didn't know.
The Commission will hold two hearings in Wilkes-Barre next month. Their final report is due in the spring.