Kids-for-cash judge seeks clemency

SCRANTON — Disgraced former kids-for-cash Judge Michael T. Conahan seeks clemency on the 17½-year federal prison sentence he is serving.

Conahan, 66, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges in the scandal and has been behind bars since he was sentenced in September 2011. A searchable database on the Department of Justice’s website that was made public in March shows Conahan has a pending request for a sentence commutation, or reduction.

The database does not provide any information about the reason for the request. Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Navas Oxman said the pardon attorney’s office does not disclose where in the process a case is pending.

Michael Conahan

Conahan and fellow Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. were convicted of accepting kickbacks in exchange for funneling juvenile defendants to detention centers built by developer Robert K. Mericle’s construction firm and operated by companies controlled by former local attorney Robert Powell.

Ciavarella went to trial and was initially convicted of 12 of 39 charges, receiving a sentence of 28 years in prison. But he appealed and saw a federal judge reverse three of the most serious convictions earlier this year.

Conahan, however, reached a plea deal with prosecutors. He initially had a deal that would have put him in prison for just over seven years, but a federal judge rejected it because Conahan refused to accept full responsibility for the kids-for-cash scheme.

He ended up being sentenced to 17½ years in prison — more than a decade longer than called for under his initial deal.

Conahan is serving his time at Federal Correctional Institution, Miami, while Ciavarella is at Federal Correctional Institution-Ashland in Kentucky.

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Kids-for-cash judge seeks clemency