Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Anonymous Complaint 'Didn't Raise A Red Flag'

An anonymous complaint accusing two former Luzerne County judges of “glaring” ethical violations “didn’t raise a red flag” with the state Judicial Conduct Board because it appeared to have been authored by a courthouse insider, the current chairman of the board said.

“In my mind, there’s so much detail in what we got — even in its condensed form — it was someone within the court system who wrote that — not an outsider who was angry at so and so,” John R. Cellucci told a state panel.

The complaint, accusing former Judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. of nepotism, cronyism and case fixing, “didn’t raise a red flag, in my opinion, that we’ve got to get on this immediately,” Cellucci said.

The timing of the complaint led conduct board members and staffers to immediately suspect it had been authored by former Judge Ann H. Lokuta, Francis J. Puskas, the board’s deputy chief counsel, said earlier.

The complaint arrived at the conduct board’s office on Sept. 28, 2006, a day after a deadline for Lokuta to accept a plea bargain in her own misconduct matter.

Full Article and Source:
Anonymous Complaint Didn't Raise Red Flag With Conduct Board

See Also:
PA Judicial Conduct Board Could be Held in Contempt

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lokuta was suspected so they did nothing??
If a person previously charged for arson said the court house was on fire... would they not look for smoke??

Pat said...

Baloney, judicial conduct board!

Sis said...

I think the board was too busy following Conahan's wishes.

And still is.

PA Citizen said...

The citizens of PA are embarrassed to all get out with the judicial corruption and now the attempted cover up.

Marcia said...

Red flag? Who are they kidding, this is business as usual only this time they got caught with their pants around their ankles. Sorry for the strong words but I have had it ~ period. I am so sick of their BS and being taken for being uninformed.

Thelma said...

What a crock! No red flag?
A blind bull would have seen it!

Anonymous said...

Why didn't it raise a red flag?

http://www.palawdirectory.com/montco/article.asp