Bad PA Judges Granted Immunity

[mrjarrell]

The legal professions sure do like looking out for each other. Lot's of back scratching going on here. Remember the judges who took bribes and kickbacks to send off peoples kids to boot camps in Pennsylvania? Well, one of their fellows granted them some immunity for their crimes. Apparently ruining kids lives is acceptable and they'll likely not have to pay anything like a substantial penalty for their illegal and immoral acts. This is why people don't trust the system anymore. There's no such thing as justice in the so-called justice system.

From the WSJ

We’ve written a bit, both here on the LB and in the WSJ, on whether Luzerne County, Pa., judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. would be granted immunity from civil suits filed by juveniles and families who claimed to have been hurt by their allegedly corrupt judicial rulings. (Click here for a recent LB post coverage of the Pennsylvania judicial scandal; here for a recent WSJ story on judicial immunity.) Well, now we know. Federal judge Richard Caputo granted partial immunity to the judges, both of whom have been accused of taking kickbacks from juvenile detention centers in return for sending business their way, in the form of juveniles, many of whom were sent off for weeks or months at a time for relatively minor infractions.
Writing that judicial immunity does not operate on a “sliding scale,” Judge Caputo ruled that the judges are protected by immunity from facing legal action for their courtroom acts. “The degree of corrupt behavior is not the touchstone of the immunity doctrine’s application,” Caputo wrote, acknowledging that his ruling runs contrary to “popular will.” He added: “The doctrine holds that judges with bad intentions, as well as those with good intentions, are immune from suit.” Click here for the Legal Intelligencer story; here for the 26-page opinion itself.
While Caputo’s ruling does not put an end to the litigation, it does mean that Ciavarella will escape liability “for the vast majority of his conduct in this action,” Caputo said. (Ciavarella is the judge who sentenced the juveniles in the suit.)

More at the source.

 

[homeless]

This is complete crap. Public servants should be held to a higher standard. We entrust them with watching, protecting and serving the community. We give them very powerful tools to accomplish these goals, specifically judges. Good cops, judges, DA's, and politicians do vast amounts of good, protect our rights, keep us safe, and further our society. Bad ones however are like a plague that will destroy a community, rotting it from the inside out.

There is no real good way of rewarding good public servants for excellence , except with our thanks and respect. However we certainly should reward the bad ones with very long prison sentences for the even slightly wavering from the law or dereliction of duty.

 

[CarmelHP]

This is complete crap. Public servants should be held to a higher standard. We entrust them with watching, protecting and serving the community. We give them very powerful tools to accomplish these goals, specifically judges. Good cops, judges, DA's, and politicians do vast amounts of good, protect our rights, keep us safe, and further our society. Bad ones however are like a plague that will destroy a community, rotting it from the inside out.

There is no real good way of rewarding good public servants for excellence , except with our thanks and respect. However we certainly should reward the bad ones with very long prison sentences for the even slightly wavering from the law or dereliction of duty.

There is a long doctrine of absolute judicial immunity from civil suit. Otherwise, everyone would always claim that there was a tort of some kind in their case preventing courts from functioning. This does not, however, extend to immunity from criminal charges for actual crimes committed.

 

[LEaSH]

There is a long doctrine of absolute judicial immunity from civil suit. Otherwise, everyone would always claim that there was a tort of some kind in their case preventing courts from functioning. This does not, however, extend to immunity from criminal charges for actual crimes committed.

Good note.

Hopefully there will be a trial of paper from alleged bribes and kickbacks so that the IRS can have something to work with. And that would get a bad judge broken financially and criminally, also.

I wont get my hopes up, though.

 

[rambone]

I'm sick and tired of the Judge-bashing that is taking place here.