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Ye Ole President Judge Mark Ciavarella of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas has stepped down from Juvenile Court and assigned Judge and Former DA David Lupas to Juvenile Court.

WILKES-BARRE – Embattled Luzerne County President Judge Mark Ciavarella has decided to step down from handling juvenile matters and has assigned Judge David Lupas to preside over the court, according to three sources.

The decision, reportedly made on Friday, comes in the midst of a controversy over Ciavarella’s handling of the juvenile court, which he has presided over for 12 years.
Times Leader

Former President Judge Michael Conahan, the Judge for Bryan Kocis’ TWO cases, unilaterally decided to stop sending Juvenile detainees to a state approved detention facility and to instead send the juveniles to a PRIVATELY OWNED detention facilty. Judge Mark Ciavarella was detaining so many juveniles and sending so many juveniles to OUT OF HOME treatment programs that the Commonwealth of Pennsyvlania advised Luzerne County that it would no longer pay sixty percent of the cost of detaining juveniles and treatment programs for juveniles in Luzerne County. Starting in June, Luzerne County will have to come up with the money to pay for housing juveniles in the Private Detention Facilty while the state approved and cheaper detention facilty is EMPTY AND UNUSED. As you would imagine,

Now that Luzerne County is going to have to foot the bill for all of the juveniles being detained, Luzerne County is now trying to get out of the contract it signed with the Privately owned Juvenile Detention Facilty.

One would guess that Judge Mark Ciavarella resigned from Juvenile Court rather that face the possibility that The Juvenile Law Center and the PA Attorney General would petition The Supreme Court to have Ciavarella REMOVED from Juvenile Court. Now, get this …

David Lupas was the Luzerne County DA WHILE juveniles in Luzerne County were being denied their right to legal counsel. So, how clean can Lupas’ hands be, given that Lupas knew or should have known what was going on with juveniles and Judge Mark Ciavarella? According to a report in the Citzens Voice, most defense attorneys in Luzerne County knew what was going on in Juvenile Court and refused to take Juvenile Court Cases because they KNEW. The Luzerne County Public Defender’s Office ALSO had to KNOW.

In one case cited in the Juvenile Law Center petition, a Fairview Township police officer was accused of advising a defendant against hiring an attorney. The practice is widespread in Luzerne County juvenile cases, said an attorney familiar with the system, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“I was told that I didn’t need a lawyer, that the lawyer wouldn’t even be allowed to speak, and that (Jamie) would just get a slap on the wrist,” Bryk said. “I honestly thought, since she’s a juvenile, she didn’t need a lawyer.” Citizens Voice