Opinion ID: 869748
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Indictment and Prosecution

Text: In January 2009, Ciavarella and Conahan were charged with honest services wire fraud and conspiracy. Both subsequently pleaded guilty before District Judge Edwin M. 10 Kosik of the District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, conditioned upon the Court‟s acceptance of binding plea agreements with a stipulated 87-month sentences. As noted above, Judge Kosik rejected the plea agreements because of his concern that the stipulated sentences were far below the Guidelines for the charged offenses. He also cited the Probation Office‟s presentence report prepared in connection with his review of the plea agreements, which represented that Ciavarella had continued to publicly deny receipt of money in exchange for committing juveniles to detention, despite the contradictory offense conduct proffered by the Government. Ciavarella also essentially denied committing juveniles in exchange for money at the plea hearing. Ciavarella and Conahan then withdrew their pleas, and in September 2009, a grand jury returned a 48-count Indictment against Conahan and Ciavarella.2 Conahan eventually pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and received a 17-year sentence. Ciavarella‟s trial began in February 2011. Throughout the trial, Ciavarella sought to demonstrate that Mericle‟s payments were legitimate referral fees and not bribes or kickbacks. Specifically, he argued that there was no quid pro quo, that is, no agreement that Ciavarella was sending juveniles to PACC and WPACC in exchange for payments from Powell. As part of this defense, Ciavarella sought to prove that Powell was embezzling from his law firm and the detention centers in order to support his lavish lifestyle rather 2 On September 29, 2010, a superseding Indictment was returned against Ciavarella containing the same charges but with revised language to conform with Skilling v. United States, 130 S. Ct. 2896 (2010). 11 than to pay kickbacks to Ciavarella. Nevertheless, on February 18, the jury found Ciavarella guilty of 12 charges: racketeering (Count 1), racketeering conspiracy (Count 2), four counts of honest services mail fraud (Counts 7, 8, 9, and 10), money laundering conspiracy (Count 21), conspiracy to defraud the United States (Count 35), and four counts of subscribing to a materially false tax return (Counts 36, 37, 38, and 39). Ciavarella was acquitted of honest services wire fraud, bribery, money laundering, and extortion. Thereafter, the District Court sentenced Ciavarella to 336 months of imprisonment and 3 years of supervised release and ordered Ciavarella to pay restitution in the amount of $1,173,791.94, to forfeit $997,600, and to pay a special assessment of $1,200.