More on the Pennsylvannia Judicial Corruption Probe.
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Pennsylvania Judges Met With Felons
Psychologist & In-Law of Corrupt Pennsylvania Judge Conahan Paid 1.2 Million
Feds Turn Their Sights on Third Pa. Judge as Part of Corruption Probe
Federal authorities are looking at Luzerne County Common Pleas Judge Michael Toole as part of their investigation into alleged corruption at the Luzerne County Courthouse, sources have confirmed to The Legal Intelligencer.
The focus of the investigation appears to stem from an allegation that Toole may have received a payment from attorney Robert Powell.
Federal authorities have previously charged that former President Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and former Senior Judge Michael T. Conahan accepted more than $2.6 million in kickbacks from Powell and another source while Powell was one of the owners of PA Child Care, a private juvenile detention facility. Both Ciavarella and Conahan pleaded guilty in February to both counts — honest services wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States — in the criminal information filed against them.
The amount allegedly paid to Toole is believed to be substantially less than what Conahan and Ciavarella received, sources said. Those sources either would not, or could not, identify the reason for the alleged payment or the amount.
When asked if Toole had taken a payoff from Powell, one of Powell’s attorneys, Mark B. Sheppard, formerly of Sprague & Sprague and now a partner at Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads, said he could not comment.
“It would be inappropriate for our client or I to comment at this time, except to say that Mr. Powell continues to cooperate fully with any investigation,” Sheppard said.
Sheppard, along with other attorneys from Sprague & Sprague, had previously authored a letter released to the media in February disputing the notion that the money Powell paid to Conahan and Ciavarella amounted to kickbacks, and instead said that Powell was the victim of a judicial shakedown.
“First, it is grossly inaccurate to suggest that our client ever sought or had any influence in the sentencing of any juvenile offender. In fact, Bob Powell never offered to pay a single penny to these former judges. Instead, Bob Powell was a victim of their demands for payment,” the letter said.
The letter goes on to say that, although Powell recognizes he made a mistake by not going to authorities, he remained silent about Conahan and Ciavarella’s demands because they exerted pressure on Powell and his clients.
“The record will show that despite this, Powell not only refused the judges’ continued demands for additional payments, but ultimately reported the conduct to authorities,” the letter said.
The letter, also signed by Richard A. Sprague and Geoffrey R. Johnson, said Powell is continuing to cooperate with authorities and is integral to the U.S. attorney’s prosecution of Ciavarella and Conahan.
Toole did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday. A call to an attorney rumored to be representing Toole was not returned. A call to Martin C. Carlson, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, was not returned.
Luzerne County Common Pleas Court President Judge Chester B. Muroski said he was not aware of any investigation involving Toole.
“I have not been notified by any law enforcement authorities that any such investigation is ongoing,” Muroski said.
Muroski, who said last week that he was interviewed by federal investigators concerning court administration issues, would not say if Toole’s name had surfaced during questioning.
“I’m not going to discuss any portion of any discussions I’ve had with law enforcement authorities,” he said.
Asked if he ever heard rumors that Toole allegedly accepted payoffs, Muroski responded immediately.
“Never,” he said.
The only reported connection between Toole and Powell is a case from 2004 in which the newly elected judge allowed the former co-owner of PA Child Care to continue docking his yacht, “Reel Justice,” at a Florida yacht club linked to Conahan and Ciavarella.
In the case, first reported by the Times-Leader newspaper in Wilkes-Barre, Jupiter Yacht Club Marina notified Powell in August 2004 that his lease would not be renewed because he had violated marina rules and regulations.
According to the Times-Leader , a member of Powell’s law firm, Stephen Seach, filed a complaint against the club in Luzerne County Common Pleas Court. Toole, the motions court judge, set a date for a hearing and held one on Oct. 21, 2004.
An attorney for the yacht club sent a letter to Toole, dated Oct. 20, 2004, questioning why the case was being heard in Pennsylvania and asking for a continuance, according to the Times-Leader. The attorney called the issues in the case “Florida matters.”
According to the Times-Leader, the attorney for the yacht club had only been given one day’s notice for the hearing.
Toole’s order directed the marina to stop interfering with the renewal of Powell’s lease. He called for a full hearing on the issue, but the issue became moot. According to the Times-Leader, Powell withdrew his court action about two months later.
Toole had been on the bench for less than a year at the time.
According to a Feb. 10, 2009, article in the Times-Leader, Toole defended his decision and asserted that he had jurisdiction over the case because the plaintiff was from Pennsylvania.
“Our citizens, if they enter a contract here, shouldn’t have to fight a corporation in their hometown,” Toole said, according to the Times-Leader.
While the initial charges in the federal probe centered around the allegations that Conahan and Ciavarella accepted kickbacks in exchange for sending kids to PA Child Care, sources have confirmed that the investigation has since grown to include allegations of case fixing in motor vehicle arbitration cases, alleged case fixing between Conahan and two admitted felons — including reputed mob boss William D’Elia — as well as scrutiny of other Luzerne County judges.
Sources have previously confirmed that D’Elia and his friend, admitted felon Robert Kulick — also a friend of Conahan’s, sources have confirmed — have been cooperating with law enforcement authorities in their investigation into alleged corruption in Luzerne County.
D’Elia has issued a statement through his attorney distancing himself from Kulick and Conahan.
“I in no way was involved with the judges and juvenile detention center and the Thomas Joseph lawsuit,” D’Elia has said, according to his attorney James Swetz.
And late last week sources confirmed to The Legal Intelligencer that federal investigators are looking into a zoning case in which the owners of a hotel frequented by D’Elia challenged a zoning variance that would have allowed the county to build a new county-owned juvenile detention facility.
Before his election to the bench in 2003, Toole was a partner with Ciavarella at Lowery Ciavarella Rogers and Toole. Court records show that, on at least one occasion, Toole represented The Woodlands Inn & Resort — a hotel on the outskirts of Wilkes-Barre that has ties to D’Elia and that also received a pair of favorable rulings from Conahan in 2000 and 2003. There is no evidence to suggest that the plaintiffs improperly influenced either case.
The resort received another favorable ruling in 2003 from Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. that blocked the construction of a county-owned juvenile detention facility near its property, because it might have scared away prospective guests. The decision essentially paved the way for the construction of PA Child Care.
That is a case federal investigators are looking into, sources have told The Legal Intelligencer. There is no evidence to suggest that the plaintiffs improperly influenced the outcome of the case.
During his time at the firm, Ciavarella represented Robert K. Mericle — the builder of PA Child Care.
Though he was not named in the criminal information filed by federal officials against Ciavarella and Conahan, Mericle’s construction company allegedly wired $1 million of the $2.6 million in kickbacks to a company over which the judges had control, according to the criminal information filed against the judges.
A review of Toole’s 2003 campaign contributions shows Mericle donated $600.
—end of article—
TimesLeader.com
Dealer a guest at judges’ condo
Ronald Belletiere had been a supplier to the Empire drug ring, prosecutors say.
TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER and JERRY LYNOTT tmorgan@timesleader.com
JUPITER, Fla. – A convicted drug dealer and attorney Robert Powell were among the people who were listed as “permanent guests” permitted to use an exclusive condominium owned by Luzerne County judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, according to documents obtained Friday by The Times Leader.
Ronald Belletiere, who was convicted of participating in the Empire Drug ring that operated in Hazleton in the mid-1980s, was listed as a permanent guest along with Powell and Ciavarella’s three children on a resident registration form maintained by The Mariner at the Jupiter (Fla.) Yacht Club. The designation allows persons listed to have access to the property without having to get authorization from the owners.
The form, obtained by the newspaper, is the latest document to surface that shows the close personal as well as financial ties that Powell, a wealthy Butler Township attorney, had with Ciavarella and Conahan during their tenure on the bench.
It also raises further questions regarding Conahan’s ties to Belletiere, a man federal prosecutors said was a supplier to the Empire drug ring and who, according to corporate documents, later opened a used car lot with Conahan’s wife.
The U.S. Attorney’s office on Monday filed charges against Conahan and Ciavarella, alleging the men accepted more than $2.6 million in kickbacks in exchange for rulings they made that benefited the PA Child Care detention center in Pittston Township and its sister facility near Pittsburgh. The centers were owned by Powell until last June, when he sold out to his partner, Gregory Zappala.
The federal complaint alleges that Vision Holdings, a company owned by Powell, and Mericle Construction, owned by Robert Mericle, wrote numerous checks to businesses controlled by Conahan and Ciavarella in an attempt to make the money look as though it was legitimately earned.
Prosecutors further allege the judges have a controlling interest in the Pinnacle Group of Jupiter LLC, which is listed on mortgage documents as owning unit 303 at the Mariner at Jupiter Yacht Club.
The registration form obtained by the newspaper lists Conahan and his wife Barbara and Ciavarella and his wife Cindy as co-owners of unit 303.
Powell’s financial ties to Conahan and Ciavarella were first revealed last May through statements of financial interest the judges are required to file. Those statements showed that all three men at one time had a financial interest in W-Cat Inc., a real estate development firm that was building a townhouse project in Wright Township.
Conahan’s ties to Belletiere date back to the late 1980s, according to testimony that was presented at Belletiere’s 1991 trial on drug charges.
According to a transcript of that trial obtained by The Times Leader in 1994, Neal DeAngelo, a Hazleton businessman, testified that in 1986 Conahan, then a district judge in Hazleton, had warned him about purchasing drugs from another man whom Conahan said was under investigation.
Neal DeAngelo, who was never charged, testified Conahan then introduced him to Belletiere, a former Hazleton man who was living in Miami. DeAngelo said he, his brother Paul and Neal Forte then traveled to Florida in early 1987 and purchased $26,500 worth of cocaine from Belletiere.
The trial transcript shows the prosecutor in the case described Conahan as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a sidebar conversation with U.S. District Judge Edwin Kosik.
Kosik has been assigned to the criminal case against Ciavarella and Conahan. The two are scheduled to appear in federal court, Scranton, at 1 p.m. Feb. 12 to enter guilty pleas to charges of tax evasions and honest services fraud.
Conahan was never charged in connection with that investigation. Confronted with the testimony in 1994, Conahan, who had taken his seat on the county bench eight months earlier, vehemently denied any involvement in the drug case.
Belletiere was convicted and served nearly four years in prison before being released in May 1995. His name resurfaced in connection with Conahan last July, when it was revealed that Belletiere had opened a used car lot with Barbara Conahan.
Charles Rebhan, a former employee of RAB Auto Sales in Pompano Beach, told The Times Leader he was present at a meeting with Belletiere and Michael and Barbara Conahan at which time they discussed opening the car lot.
Barbara Conahan is listed as the president of RAB Auto Sales Inc., trading as Ocean Auto Sales, formed in 2004. Documents filed with the Florida Corporation Bureau list Belletiere as the “contact person” for Ocean Auto Sales.
Other documents obtained by The Times Leader this week show Powell docked his 56-foot, $1.5 million yacht, “Reel Justice,” at the Jupiter Yacht Club’s marina.
Powell had signed a rental agreement that allowed him to dock the vessel at the marina from Oct. 21, 2003, to Oct. 21, 2004. The agreement was attached to a lawsuit Powell filed in Luzerne County Court in September 2004, that sought to prevent the yacht club’s condominium association from evicting the vessel for violating the association’s rules.
Luzerne County Judge Michael Toole issued an injunction, despite questions raised by the association’s attorneys over whether Pennsylvania courts had jurisdiction over the matter, given that the vessel was located in Florida. The dispute was resolved two months later when Powell voluntarily dissolved the injunction.
