For victims, justice prevails

[Silent_Bob]

http://citizensvoice.com/news/for-victims-justice-prevails-1.1187688#axzz1UotH5bW8

A simple exclamation - "Woo hoo!" - broke the pall of silence in the courtroom Thursday after a federal judge sentenced ex-Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. to 28 years in jail for his role in what the chief prosecutor called the "worst judicial scandal in the history of Pennsylvania."

Moments later, as the dozens of courtroom spectators spilled into the hallway, including juveniles and parents who faced Ciavarella during his time on the bench, a smattering of applause erupted. Outside the courtroom, joy. Inside, at the defense table, sorrow. Finally, justice had been served.

Sandy Fonzo, the mother who confronted Ciavarella on the courthouse steps after his conviction in February, distributed T-shirts with a photograph of her late son, Edward R. Kenzakoski III, to the juveniles and parents who attended the sentencing.

They sat together in the back row of the courtroom gallery, at times muttering amongst themselves as Ciavarella and his attorneys argued for leniency and attempted again to shake the notion that he sent juveniles to a for-profit detention center and violated their constitutional rights in exchange for a share of $2.8 million in payoffs.

"Finally all this that we've been fighting for, it did happen," Fonzo said. "Justice does prevail."

Fonzo claimed Ciavarella's decision to detain her son on drug paraphernalia charges in 2004 led to a downward spiral that ended in suicide in 2010.

"Ciavarella will never receive my sentence that I'll live with for the rest of my life," Fonzo said. "He'll never think about me again. He'll never think of my son. I'll live with this for the rest of my life, and I wouldn't wish that even on him. I wouldn't wish this on anybody what I have to live with."

Hillary Transue, whose complaint about facing Ciavarella in 2008 led to a state review of his cases and the overturning of thousands of convictions, said she was "satisfied with Ciavarella going away for a very, very long time."

If he serves the full sentence, Ciavarella will be 89 when he is released from prison. Transue, a 19-year-old entering her junior year as an education major at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire, will be 47.

"I'm never going to hear from the man again and he's never going to smirk in anybody's face after what he's done to them," Transue said.

Transue faced Ciavarella in 2007 for charges related to a Web page she posted poking fun at an administrator in the Crestwood School District. Ciavarella sentenced Hillary, then 15, to three months at a detention camp. Contrary to Ciavarella's courtroom assertions, she said, her rights were violated.

"I was sickened and disgusted as I usually am with Ciavarella," Transue said. "This entire time he's been adamant about denying that he did any of those things to children and it's just despicable."

Ciavarella admitted in May 2008 that he failed to inform juveniles of their right to an attorney during his terse hearings, and often skipped reading them a required colloquy.

His assertions Thursday appeared to contradict that admission, said Marsha Levick, legal director of the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center.

"There's not a question about this. This is not something that can be debated about whether or not he violated children's constitutional rights," Levick said. "The record speaks for itself. The transcripts speak volumes by their silence, they speak volumes by their brevity."

After the sentencing, as U.S. Marshals shuttled Ciavarella to prison, the juveniles and parents moved outside the federal courthouse in Scranton. They heckled Ciavarella's lead attorney, Al Flora Jr., as he spoke to reporters, and cheered the federal prosecutors who handled the case.

"I'm hoping that my son is watching down on all this, because some of the last words he said to me were, 'Mom, It'll never happen. He'll never go away,'" Fonzo said. "He lost total trust and hope in the system and I want him to see that he did go away. I wish he was right here next to me."

msisak@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2061

[Russell Kanning]

interesting

the kid was right to not trust the system .... how does it ever pay these people back?