The state Judicial Conduct Board's decision to table an investigation into a misconduct complaint against two former Luzerne County judges came amid concerns about its staffing limitations and the notion that an outside law enforcement probe could lead to penalties stiffer than mere professional sanctions, an attorney for the board said in a court filing.Still, the attorney, Paul H. Titus, failed to account for a nearly two-year vacuum of inaction from the time the board received its first anonymous complaint against the judges, Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and when it turned the document over to federal prosecutors.
Judicial Conduct Board member Edwin L. Klett told a state panel last month that the board received the complaint accusing Conahan and Ciavarella of nepotism, cronyism and case-fixing in September 2006, but failed to take action until federal prosecutors requested a copy in June or July 2008.
The Interbranch Commission has subpoenaed Judicial Conduct Board officials to testify at a hearing Feb. 2 in Harrisburg. The Commission's attorney, Arthur H. Stroyd Jr., said he had not received the filing, but noted Titus' contention that the complaints are confidential, "would be consistent with the position they've taken."
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Limited Power, Resources Hampered Judicial Misconduct Investigation
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If that Board consists of card-carrying lawyer/judges, then they are guilty of MISPRISON OF A FELONY!
ReplyDeleteBoo-hoo! What a copout!
ReplyDeleteThe PA Judicial Conduct Board is corrupt. An outside agency needs to review all the complaints. How many more complaints, that should have been investigated, were dismissed or ignored?
ReplyDeleteBALONEY, judicial conduct board. You failed to protect the public from Conahan and Ciavarella. How many other judges are you protecting?
ReplyDeleteLIARS liars pants on fire!
ReplyDeleteThey got caught covering up, hiding, sitting on criminal behavior now they are trying to spin their way out of a fix, to find LAME excuses for their normal pattern and practice which is do nothing and if forced doing all things possible to "protect" the targets of complaints which is not open to public viewing.
Open up your eyes federal investigators, this is a snapshot of a national album of corruption and worse.