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SCRANTON — Former judge Mark Ciavarella believes his conviction for his role in the Luzerne County juvenile justice scandal should be vacated because, he maintains, some charges against him were outside the statute of limitations.
Ciavarella, 65, sentenced to 28 years in federal prison in August 2011, filed a motion Thursday in federal court as he appeals his February 2011 conviction.
Ciavarella believes his trial lawyers failed to challenge the timely filing of charges against him and prosecutors failed to turn over all statements and interview reports of real estate developer Robert Mericle.
The former judge who, along with co-defendant Michael Conahan, a former president judge in Luzerne County, resigned in January 2009 amid federal indictments. Ciavarella claims his defense strategy was “prejudice” when his lawyers failed to raise statute of limitations on most of the charges and failed to have the jury properly instructed on the statute of limitations.
He also believes if federal prosecutors had turned over all Mericle’s statements and interviews, it would have changed his defense strategy.
Conahan, 63, pleaded guilty to a charge of racketeering conspiracy and was sentenced in September 2011 to 17 1/2 years in federal prison. Mericle pleaded guilty in 2009 to withholding information about the commission of a felony for aiding Ciavarella and Conahan in disguising the source of about $2.1 million in finder’s fees he paid to them for the construction of a juvenile detention facility in Pittston Township.
Mericle was released from federal custody on April 28 after serving a 12-month prison sentence.
According to Ciavarella’s motion filed Thursday, federal prosecutors alleged Ciavarella began accepting payments from Mericle in 2000 or 2001 and continued until Sept. 9, 2009. Ciavarella claims when he was indicted in January 2009, he could not be held accountable for “any crime, conspiracy, or bribery scheme that occurred before Sept. 9, 2004.”
Ciavarella’s verdict form indicates the jury found Ciavarella guilty on racketeering and conspiracy at which he committed wire fraud when he transferred $2.6 million during January 2003.
The jury also found Ciavarella guilty of honest services mail fraud for filing fraudulent statements of financial interest with a state agency and five tax counts for filing false tax returns.
Ciavarella was acquitted on multiple counts of bribery, extortion and money laundering relating to more than $700,000 that was paid to him and Conahan.
