Ciavarella disposed thousands of children to extended stays in youth centers for offenses as trivial as mocking an assistant principal on Myspace or trespassing in a vacant building. He was convicted on 12 of 39 counts and sentenced to 28 years in federal prison.
In the wake of the scandal, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania overturned hundreds of adjudications of delinquency in Luzerne County. Pennsylvania 's Judicial Conduct Board received four complaints about Michael Conahan between and , but later admitted it failed to investigate any of them, nor had it sought documentation regarding the cases involved.
Attorneys from the Center determined that several hundred cases were tried without the defendants receiving proper counsel. In April , the Center petitioned the Pennsylvania Supreme Court seeking relief for alleged violation of the youths' civil rights. The application of relief was later denied, then reconsidered in January when corruption charges against both Conahan and Mark Ciavarella surfaced.
During the course of the hearings, Lokuta charged that Conahan was behind a conspiracy to have her removed. However, Judge Michael T.
Toole who pleaded guilty to and was convicted in April of Fraud and Tax Evasion charges [ 22 ] as well as another judge, had each stayed at a Florida condo jointly owned by Conahan and Ciavarella. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided to uphold Lokuta's removal from the bench in January , finding she had received a fair trial, regardless of Conahan's testimony. It also ordered the expungements of the records of 2, of those juveniles who were affected. A statement from the U. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania outlined the charges against the two judges on January 26, The charges outlined in the information [ 25 ] described actions between and by both judges to assist in the construction and population of private juvenile facilities operated by the two Pennsylvania Child Care companies, acting in an official capacity in favor of the private facilities over the facility operated by Luzerne County.
