10. The Judges (Kids for Cash)

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That's the voice of Luzerne County Commissioner Steve Urban from 2009.

He's referring to an effort by the federal government to expose and correct the widespread corruption problems that continue to plague Pennsylvania's co-counties.

Northeastern Pennsylvania has been considered one of the most corrupt regions of the United States since the 1920s.

The area has been infected with bribery, racketeering, cronyism, nepotism, and other abuses of power at essentially every level of government.

The pervasiveness of the corruption in northeastern Pennsylvania has always been somewhat of an open secret.

During his 20-year tenure as mayor of Chicago, Richard Daly referred to the area as the, quote, political brothel of America.

In 2009, the FBI charged more than two dozen public officials in Luzerne County alone for an assorted array of financial schemes.

A school superintendent, multiple courthouse officials, five school board members, and other county officials were all involved in corruption scandals.

most of them involving small cash transactions or accepting gifts or bribes.

One of the men indicted in the federal probe was Commissioner Urban's cohort, Greg Skrepanak.

It is my belief that the system is supposed to assist in helping these people live the American dream and not make it into a nightmare.

Skrepanak was elected to serve as a Luzerne County Commissioner in 2003 after retiring from an unspectacular career in the National Football League.

He branded himself a reformer who promised to fight for the little guy.

He claimed to be different than those career politicians who busied themselves with misspending taxpayer dollars and blowing hot air.

He was going to tackle, no pun intended, the real problems facing Luzerne County, like gang activity and community development.

But soon after being re-elected to a second term, Skrepanak found himself in hot water with greasy palms.

a position familiar to many who have held public office in Coal Country, Pennsylvania.

It was revealed that Greg Skrepanak had accepted a total of $70,000, including a $5,000 reduction in closing costs for a townhouse he purchased in a housing project named Jenkins Township.

In exchange, Skrepanak agreed to vote yes to pass legislation allowing the use of tax revenue to fund infrastructure related to the same housing development that he had just moved into.

Greg Skrepanak announced his resignation on December 17, 2009, and maintained that he did nothing wrong.

He said the $5,000 reduction in closing costs wasn't a bribe.

It was just a gift.

And if it was wrong to accept that gift, well, he just didn't know any better.

He told the Associated Press, quote, things have been like this for so long that I don't think many people see a lot of wrong in what they've done.

I believe any elected official of the last five years is at risk.

I don't think many of them truly know what they can and cannot do.

Greg Skripenak pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe, and he was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison.

I'm happy about today and that I can move on with the rest of my life now.

Not too happy about the sentence.

I think it's pretty severe, but it's what the judge thought, it's what the people wanted.

I can accept that.

God willing, we'll move on, and I guess they'll start going.

Is it daunting to be facing prison on August 30th, though, to be

questioned for society for you?

I certainly wouldn't want to go.

I didn't want to go to prison.

When he was released from prison, Greg Skrepanak returned home to Luzern County, and there wasn't much waiting for him.

The townhouse in Jenkins Township had been seized by the bank.

His entire NFL pension was used to pay legal fees.

His health was in decline due to the physical toll of a football career and a poor diet.

But he was in good spirits, telling the Wilkes-Bar Times leader newspaper that he felt his best contributions were yet to come.

Greg Skrepanak is disappointed that his political career will be remembered for the bribery scandal, but he is able to sleep at night knowing that some of the difficult decisions he made improved a life for everyone in Luzerne County, like voting to close down the county-owned nursing home where his sister worked to cut costs.

He also highlights the county's implementation of a personnel policy that he helped design and a financial software tracking program that he helped launch as two ways he contributed to the public good during his time in office.

Yet seemingly absent from his list of accomplishments is a decision that he made about five years before his resignation as commissioner of Luzerne County.

Skrepanak, along with fellow commissioner Todd von der Heid, ignored warnings from state auditors and gave final approval to a $58 million 20-year lease.

for a juvenile detention facility which was to be built in Pittston, Pennsylvania.

The same juvenile detention facility that would soon be at the center of a scandal that dominated national headlines.

The same probe that landed Greg Skrepanak and others in jail was also responsible for uncovering the largest judicial corruption scandal in American history.

Two judges are accused of accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks to keep a private prison filled to capacity with children.

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Billion dollars.

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And responsible for the collapse of the entire system.

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Juveniles are committing serious violent crimes.

In a recent 10-year period, the number of murders by teens aged 14 to 17 rose an astonishing 165%.

As judge, if given the opportunity to try a juvenile offender as an adult, I will.

If you're a teen and convicted of murder, rape, or violent crimes against our children or the elderly, you can expect that I will impose the maximum sentence allowed by law.

Mark Chivarella, a judge to protect all of us.

Mark Chivarella grew up in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.

He left for a couple of years to study law at a Catholic university in Pittsburgh, but he returned immediately upon graduating in 1975 to begin his career as a lawyer.

After spending a few decades in private practice, Shivarella decided to run for judge of Luzerne County in 1995.

His campaign, which focused heavily on juvenile offenders, was successful, and he was elected to the first of what would be two ten-year terms as a judge.

Once elected to the bench, Shivarella made fast friends with then-president judge of Luzerne County, Michael Conahan, and an attorney named Robert Powell.

The three men and their families would often vacation together, sharing use of a condo in Florida and a yacht named the Real, spelled R-E-E-L Justice.

With the help of his friends, Shivarella had no problem adapting to the culture of the Luzerne County justice system.

His friends even gave him a nickname, Mr.

Zero Tolerance, a reference to his campaign promise of imposing harsh sentences on juveniles.

A campaign promise that Chivarella quickly fulfilled.

He traveled to every school in the county to deliver a warning of zero tolerance to the students and a promise to lock them up if they ever appeared before him in a courtroom.

Chivarella felt the no-nonsense approach to juvenile sentencing was required in post-Columbine, America.

And the school administrators supported it.

Because everybody loved it.

The schools absolutely loved it.

They got rid of every bad kid in their school.

When I was in school, if you threw a spitball, maybe you went to the principal's office and sat for a couple periods.

The last couple years, if you threw a spitball, they got the police and you ended up in juvenile court and get sent away.

Parents knew that when they walked into Chivarella's courtroom with their kids, they would be walking out alone.

It didn't matter to Chivarella if the charges were as major as stealing a car or as minor as stealing a toy car.

Hard time would be imposed.

Children were pulled from their homes and schools, ankles and wrists shackled like an inmate on death row.

The proceedings were brief, some lasting less than 60 seconds, and defendants were given no time to speak.

Over half of them lacked legal representation.

The harshness of the sentences varied wildly, especially if the Penn State football team had lost that weekend.

In one case, Judge Shivarella told a 14-year-old boy to turn around and count the number of birds perched on the ledge of a courtroom window.

The boy counted to six, and Chivarella sentenced them to six months of detention, one for every bird.

The schools had a lot of influence in

initiating complaints into the juvenile system.

We were faced with what occurred at Columbine, and I think there was a reaction across the country and probably the world that you need to get tough with these kids.

Over 6,000 kids had stood in front of Mark Shivarella, some as young as 10 years old,

most of them first-time offenders.

The nation was understandably shaken after the Columbine school shooting.

But was this policy really a reaction to that singular event?

Or was there something more sinister behind Mark Shivarella's approach to justice?

It was in June of the year 2000 when attorney Robert Powell approached his friend Mark Chivarella and shared his plans to build a private juvenile detention center in Luzerne County.

Powell had the funding, but he needed someone to build it.

Coincidentally, Mark Chivarella knew a guy who knew a guy who would be perfect for the job.

It was a friend of Michael Conahan's, a prominent real estate developer named Robert Miracle.

Conahan introduced Robert Miracle to Mark Shivarella, and Chivarella introduced Robert Miracle to Robert Powell.

And before long, the construction of PA Child Care, the first privately owned juvenile detention center in Luzerne County, was breaking ground.

Robert Miracle was so grateful for the contract that he offered a finder's fee of $2 million to Judge Mark Shivarella.

Shivarella, a former lawyer and current judge, claims he was hesitant to accept the money because he was unsure of the legality of such a transaction.

Robert Miracle assured Mr.

Zero Tolerance that there was nothing to worry about.

Paying Finder's fee was common practice in the developer industry.

Mark Shivarella couldn't believe his luck.

Quote, I look at him.

I thank him.

I can't believe it's happening.

It's like manna from heaven.

Shivarella raced upstairs to the courthouse to share his luck with President Judge and vacationing buddy Michael Conahan.

Shivarella told Conahan the story of how he introduced Robert Powell the lawyer to Robert Miracle the developer and how Robert Miracle had given him a $2 million finders fee for the introduction.

Shivarella then offered half of the finders fee to Michael Conahan because, quote, he was the one who made it all happen.

It's unclear what exactly Mark Shivarella is referring to when he says Michael Conahan made it all happen, but one thing's for certain, Michael Conahan certainly helped make it happen.

Besides introducing Miracle to Chavarella, in January 2002, as president judge, Michael Conahan signed an agreement to house juveniles at the new facility, paying $1.3 million in rent per year.

By September 2002, the construction of the facility neared completion, which just happened to coincide with the closing of the county-owned juvenile detention center, which Michael Conahan had discontinued funding.

And in 2004, Luzerne County Commissioners Greg Skrepenek and Todd von der Heid granted a 20-year $58 million lease to PA Child Care, where more than 3,000 children would be incarcerated at the behest of Mark Schivarella.

3,000 children whose lives would never be the same.

Children like Justin Bodner, a student who was involved in a verbal altercation with another student's parent at a bus stop.

He was in and out of the juvenile detention center for six years.

Or Charlie Balasavich.

He was gifted a dirt bike from his parents who didn't know it was stolen.

He was locked up for almost five years for receiving stolen property.

Or Edward Kinzakowski Jr., a high school wrestler whose talent put him within reach of a collegiate scholarship.

According to Edward's parents, who had separated when he was a baby, he started hanging out with a rough crowd during his junior year of high school in 2003.

He was partying a lot and drinking and staying out way past this curfew.

Fearing that Edward was on a path that would jeopardize his future as a collegiate wrestler, Edward's father, Edward Kinzakowski Sr., devised a plan to scare his son straight.

Edward Sr.

planted a marijuana pipe in his son's car and alerted a friend that was on the local police force to confront his son at a party.

The cops arrived, searched Ed Jr.'s vehicle, found the pipe, and arrested him.

Everything was happening according to plan.

Ed Sr.

had been told by his cop buddies that Chivarella was a good man who would give Ed Jr.

a good scare.

A slap on the wrist.

Except Chivarella's version of a slap on the wrist turned out to be a six-month stay at the private prison, housed with gangsters and murderers.

Edward's mother, Sandy Fonzo, fought tirelessly for her son's release.

She collected letters from Ed's teachers and coaches that testified to his character, and she sent them to Judge Chivarella.

And she never received a response.

So Ed remained behind bars for his entire sentence.

Edward missed his entire senior year of high school.

His wrestling career was dead, as was his dream of accepting a scholarship to some faraway school and getting the hell out of Luzerne County for good.

When he was finally released, Edward was angry and bitter.

He completely distrusted authority and the justice system.

His drinking became worse, and he started to display aggressive and violent behaviors.

Five days before his 18th birthday in 2004, Edward drunkenly beat another man using his fists and a rock.

Instead of standing in front of Chivarella again to face the consequences of his actions and for violating his probation, Edward ran away from home and fled Luzern County.

Edward returned to his hometown almost two years later.

He was 20 years old.

He had a new job and a new girlfriend, and his life seemed to be back on track.

But it didn't last for long.

In 2006, he was involved in a minor car accident, and when the police arrived and discovered that there was a warrant out for his arrest related to the assault from a few years earlier, he was arrested.

His probation was revoked, and he returned to the juvenile detention facility for another six-month stay.

After serving his time, Edward found himself in more trouble just a few months later.

He had gotten into a fight at a party and brutally beat three men so severely that two of them had to undergo reconstructive facial surgery.

There are conflicting reports regarding the incident.

Some say Ed was jumped by the three men and he had defended himself.

Other witnesses claim that Edward blew a gasket and attacked the men unprovoked.

Ed was tried as an adult and spent almost three years in a state prison.

His mother Sandy says that the adult prison system was the final straw.

Quote, He was just never the same.

He couldn't recover.

He wanted to go on with his life, but he was just hurt.

He was affected so deeply, more than anyone knew.

Six months after his release from prison, Edward Kinzakowski Jr.

walked into the woods to his family's cabin and shot himself in the heart.

He was 23 years old.

Hilary Transu found herself standing in front of Judge Chivarella when she was 15 years old.

She and her mother declined legal representation because they were promised that if she cooperated, everything would be fine.

At most, she expected to receive probation or community service.

After all, what Hillary did was a harmless joke.

In 2007, Hillary and her friends had created a parody MySpace profile for the vice principal of their high school.

The About Me section of the profile read, Hello, I am the Vice Principal of

high school.

I consider myself to be a fun-loving, outgoing individual who spends most of her time reading silly teen magazines and daydreaming about Johnny Depp in nothing but tidy whities.

Ooh la la.

The link to the profile was passed around Hillary's school, and eventually the principal caught wind of it.

The profile was traced back to Hillary, and instead of detention or suspension, The police were called and Hillary was arrested.

Hillary's hearing with Chavirelli lasted less than a minute.

She remembers him staring down at her and asking with disgust, what makes you think you can get away with this crap?

As soon as she opened her mouth to defend herself, the gavel slammed.

She was handcuffed and taken away to jail.

Hillary claims that the sound of her mother screaming is what she remembers most about that day.

As soon as she left the courtroom, Hillary's mother began making phone calls frantically searching for anybody that could help.

Eventually, she was directed to call a juvenile rights advocacy group in Philadelphia called the Juvenile Law Center.

The JLC filed a petition seeking Hillary's release, and she was set free three weeks later.

The story told to the Juvenile Law Center by Hillary Transu's mother was a familiar story, one that the JLC had heard dozens of times in recent years, about a child in Luzerne County without a lawyer being sentenced to juvenile detention for months, sometimes years, for a petty transgression.

This familiar story always had one common element, Mark Shivarella.

The JLC launched its own independent investigation of the Luzerne County juvenile judicial system, and what they found was startling.

There had been hundreds of cases in Chivarella's court that had been tried without proper counsel.

Juveniles who appeared in court in Luzerne County were 10 times more likely to not have a lawyer compared to the rest of the state.

The rate of juvenile incarceration in Luzerne County was twice as high as neighboring counties.

The JLC continued to investigate before eventually receiving a call from the FBI who were performing their own corruption investigation in Luzerne County.

The JLC shared what it had discovered, prompting the FBI to obtain a search warrant, which it used to seize records from the Luzerne County Courthouse.

This office has filed filed a two-count criminal information charging President Judge Mark A.

Chivarella and former President Judge Michael T.

Conahan.

The judges have been charged in this criminal information with conspiring together to impede the Internal Revenue Service in its collection of taxes.

And the judges have been charged together with having devised a scheme to defraud the citizens of Luzerne County and the people of Pennsylvania of their right to honest services by judges by concealing their receipt of more than $2.6 million.

These payments were made to the judges, it is alleged, in return for discretionary acts by the judges favoring these businesses, acts relating to the construction, expansion, operation of these juvenile facilities, and acts relating to the placement of juveniles in these facilities.

The charges levied against Mark Shivarella and Michael Conahan allege that the two judges acted in an official capacity to assist in the construction of two juvenile detention facilities co-owned by attorney Robert Powell and built by Robert Merrickle in exchange for $2.6 million.

And instead of claiming the $2.6 million on their income tax returns, The two judges attempted to conceal the payment as rental income from their condo in Florida, which resulted in the charge of impeding the IRS in its collection of taxes, also known as tax evasion.

The judges were also charged with defrauding the citizens of Luzern County of their right to honest services for not disclosing that they had accepted money from the private juvenile detention center.

On February 13, 2009, Both Mark Shivarella and Michael Conahan, pursuant to a plea agreement, pleaded guilty to honest services fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

The plea agreement called for both judges to pay fines and restitution, serve up to seven years in prison, and ultimately accept responsibility for their crimes,

something which they could not seem to do.

Chavarella and Conahan continued to deny their crimes publicly, even in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Therefore, their conduct did not satisfy the terms of the agreement.

So on July 30th, 2009, federal judge Edwin M.

Kossick of Scranton rejected the plea agreement, forcing the two judges to withdraw their guilty pleas.

Long story short, this case was headed to a jury trial.

And this time, Mark Shivarella and Michael Conahan would be on the other side of the bench.

Chivarella and Conahan were previously accused of orchestrating what's been called one of the worst judicial scandals ever.

But their plea deals bottomed out.

Now, the U.S.

Attorney's Office has filed a whole new case.

In February, Conahan and Chivarella pleaded guilty to honest services fraud and were set to go to prison for seven years.

In July, a federal judge knocked that plea deal right off the table.

Conahan was called an obstructionist, and the federal judge claimed Chivarella denied his role in making cash off of imprisoning kids.

They're now charged with money laundering, bribery, extortion, fraud, racketeering, and federal tax violations.

Developer Robert Miracle and attorney Robert Powell were also facing criminal charges.

Miracle pleaded guilty to failing to disclose a felony because he did not tell a grand jury that he had paid $2.1 million to Chavarella and Conahan in exchange for their help in securing the private facility contract.

As part of his plea agreement, Miracle was forced to pay a $250,000 fine, and he agreed to donate about $2 million to local children's health and welfare programs.

Miracle served a total of one year in prison, and he was released in 2015.

On July 1, 2009, Robert Powell, the attorney who co-owned the juvenile detention facility, pleaded guilty to the charges of failing to report a felony and to being an accessory in the tax evasion conspiracy.

It was discovered that Powell had stuffed cash into FedEx boxes and had them delivered to Michael Conahan's office.

Prosecutors alleged that he concealed his knowledge of the kickbacks and did nothing to inform authorities of the scheme until his name came up in the investigation.

Eventually, Robert Powell agreed to wear a wire and he recorded conversations he had with the judges, an act that Assistant U.S.

Attorney Gordon Subrod described as, quote, instrumental in the investigation.

Robert Powell was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

I want to first apologize to my friends and my family and the people in this county and northeastern Pennsylvania who put their trust in me.

I let them down.

And for that,

I will forever be sorry.

I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to come here and tell the truth.

And

it's about it.

Many of the the parents of the children involved considered Robert Powell's sentence to be a little light and were dissatisfied that he got off so easy for cooperating.

Here's Sandy Fonzo, the mother of Edward Kinzikowski.

What did you think when you heard the defense attorney saying that he gave,

he tried to wrong other whites?

Yeah, that's just absolutely ridiculous.

I'm shaking just hearing it.

He did absolutely nothing until he knew he was under investigation.

His role was just as important as every other one of their roles.

They all had to do their part to make sure this happened and

he played a very vital role in making sure that

this corruption occurred and he's just as guilty as every other one of them.

Sandy, I saw you shaking your head and the defense attorney was reading all the rules.

He making sure that he had suffered that he and his family went.

Yeah, and that's, you know, I've seen this man, I'm sorry, but I've worked in restaurants, restaurants, putting myself through school that I've seen him frequent along with all these other crimes.

And I've seen him in action.

He's suffered, and it's it's it makes me sick.

It really does.

I've seen him in action.

I mean,

he's a horrible person.

He really is.

I've seen him personally in action, and I don't believe any of it.

And where was his wife today?

She wasn't sitting there.

I didn't see her.

I don't believe she's standing behind him at all.

Mark Chivarella and Michael Conahan pleaded not not guilty to the 39 charges levied against them.

They remained free on $1 million bail, which didn't sit well with the prosecution, who felt that the seriousness of the allegations and the efforts by the defendants to shield their assets necessitated stricter bail conditions.

The lead-up to the trial was covered exhaustively by the local and national media.

The public, especially in Luzerne County, was in an uproar.

Everyone wanted answers.

I want to see what they have to say.

I mean, how could they explain themselves for what's going on?

I think it's a horrible thing that's happened, and the corruption in Wilkes Bear has to stop.

Former juvenile inmates who had been pawns in the judge's scheme to get rich waited anxiously for the trials to begin to hear justification or an explanation or an apology.

They waited for anything that could make sense of what had happened to them.

This is Bernadine Wallace.

She spent a month in lockup for posting a threatening message on the internet.

I would like him to apologize, to especially meet other people that he put away, and just tell him that he's very wrong and he's a cruel person for doing that to everybody, to all the kids that didn't really deserve it.

Mark Shavarella's trial began in February 2009.

He denied the allegations that he accepted cash in exchange for locking children up to boost residency numbers at the private facilities.

Chavarella argued that his involvement with the detention center was as a private citizen of Luzerne County, not as a judge.

Quote, I'm doing it as Mark Chavarella, an elected official who is a judge.

I'm not doing it in my official capacity as a judge.

In response, the prosecution played video of news interviews with Chavarella in which he describes the poor conditions of the county-owned juvenile facility that Michael Conahan defunded and subsequently closed.

Interviews that were filmed in the judges' chambers.

interviews in which Mark Shivarella frequently referenced his job as a judge.

However, Shivarella did admit to tax fraud while on the stand, saying, quote, I will tell you I filed a fraudulent tax return in 2005.

I knew it wasn't rental income.

If you want to classify that as a lie, I'll agree with you.

He also testified that he never questioned the legality of the finder's fee he received from Robert Miracle, but he just didn't want it available for public scrutiny.

Quote: I never considered the money from Rob Miracle paid to me was illegal.

Never in my wildest dreams did I consider that money to be a kickback.

Did I want the general public to know that I had taken a finder's fee from the builder of what would become the juvenile detention center used by Luzerne County?

No, I didn't want that to be known.

Chavarella also admitted to living well beyond his means, telling the courtroom how he spent over $300,000 within days of receiving the payment from Miracle, and how he spent almost $470,000 in a single year, $15,000 to $20,000 of which were funds he had pocketed from his 2005 campaign.

One of the most notable moments of the trial came when Robert Powell took the stand to testify against Chavarella.

Powell claimed that Chavarella and Michael Conahan extorted him.

He said the judges badgered him for more money and that they flaunted their relationships with politicians and mobsters as some sort of warning.

Robert Powell claims that he refused to hand over any money and that he sailed his yacht to Costa Rica in 2005 to get away from the judges and the Florida condo.

Robert Powell's testimony was dismissed as nonsense by Mark Shivarella, who posed the rhetorical question, quote, why in the name of God would someone who is being extorted enter into a defense agreement with the two people extorting him?

That was true.

Robert Powell and the two judges and their lawyers agreed to cooperate on their defenses.

Shivarella also pointed out that Powell and his family were, quote, frolicking in Shivarella's pool less than a week after the date Powell claimed that he told the judges that there would be no more payments.

As for the yacht, Shivarella testified that Powell moved the yacht to Costa Rica because he had purchased a smaller boat to use at the Florida condo.

and he gave keys to both himself and Conahan.

Shivarella testified that Robert Powell was a friend and that there was no hostility between them, saying,

If you consider showing up at Mike Conahan's house and drinking a lot of Martini's hostility, then there was a lot of hostility.

You are disappointed first drinking back today, you guys?

One way or the other.

Is it tough all the way, seven and a half, eight hours of waiting up there?

Mrs.

Shivarella, how are you doing?

Okay.

Well enough.

Supporting my husband.

What's the life of you guys?

It's your worst nightmare that you need to marry.

Horrible for your family.

I don't wish one in this.

Are you afraid?

Well, we're praying.

Do you give any thoughts as to the possibility either way of how this might turn out?

What you're fancy?

Really?

How is it to have your family

over there?

Thank you.

Thanks, Judge.

The jury convened for several days, and on February 18, 2011, Mark Shivarella was convicted of 12 of the 39 charges, including racketeering, honest services mail fraud, tax evasion, and conspiring to launder money.

He was acquitted of the extortion and bribery charges, which was a victory in the eyes of Chivarella and his defense team.

Shivarella was also allowed to go go home until his sentencing day, which was scheduled for 60 days later.

And on an unreasonably warm February day, Shivarella and his lawyers walked out of the courtroom and stood on the steps of the courthouse and addressed the media.

We were amazed.

The jury rejected 95% of the government's case.

They obviously did not believe Robert Powell.

They obviously did not believe Jill Moran.

They rejected a large portion of the case, even with regards to Robert Ericle.

They rejected most of the theories regarding kickbacks and bribes.

The government really got hurt today on this entire case.

And it stands for the proposition that what Mark Shivarolla said all along was true.

He never took a kickback, he never took a bribe, and he never extorted Robert Powell.

And the government affirmed him on all three things.

This is not a cash-for-kids case, and we hope somebody starts getting the best.

My kid's not here anymore.

My kid's not here.

He's dead because of him.

He ruined my fucking life.

I'd like them to go to hell and rock there, friend.

Yo, you know what he told everybody in court?

They need to be held accountable for their actions.

You need to be.

Do you remember me?

Do you remember me?

Do you remember my son?

An all-star wrestler?

He's gone.

He's shot himself in the heart.

You scumbag.

You ruined my fucking life.

I got nothing to say, but I'll come see you.

Mark, how do you feel?

I mean,

how do you feel right now?

I've never seen it.

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Sandy Fonzo, still coping with the death of her son, Edward, could not believe that Mark Chivarella was allowed to return home.

She made her way through the crowd of reporters, tapped him on the shoulder, and berated Chivarella to his face while he sheepishly stared straight ahead, refusing to look at her.

Reporters caught up with Sandy immediately after the altercation.

You know, I killed him fucking

tries over the heart because he never was the same!

Never!

He ruined our lives!

He was a good kid!

I hate him!

I'm not, I know, no, why?

Is that gonna bring him back?

No, the only thing, there's no justice because he'll never get my sentence.

You know the pain that I'm in every day of my life?

There's no justice unless he fucking dies.

And if this has kind of exploded in you today, that's why you had to.

No, I came here because I thought the court martials were going to take him out in handcuffs, and that's what I wanted to see.

That's what I'm saying there.

I would have been thrown out the first day.

I can't stand to even look at him.

I hate him.

My whole life is ruined.

If I could...

I swear to God.

This is a joke.

There's no justice ever.

Ever.

If somebody stole life or bread, they'd be going to jail.

This is ridiculous.

He was my son.

He was my son.

Candy, what happened?

I don't have kids now.

I don't have anything.

I'm not a mother.

I am nothing.

He was my only son.

Sandy, what happened with him that caused him to take his life?

You know?

What was it to do with the king that pushed him?

He was only 17 years old.

Mark Shivarella spent the final days of his freedom before his sentencing hearing, working 14-hour days performing a series of odd jobs like towing cars, painting apartments, delivering flowers, cleaning rugs, etc.

He needed the money, and it kept his mind off the impending doom.

In an exclusive interview with Joe Holden of WBRE Eyewitness News, Shivarella expressed regret for his actions, saying, saying, quote, I just want to bitch slap myself and say, Mark, what were you thinking?

On August 11th, 2011, the courtroom was packed with Mark Chivarella's friends and family hoping for leniency in his sentence.

The courtroom was also full of juveniles who were imprisoned by Chivarella, who wished him nothing but the worst, because Mark Shivarella had not offered any mercy when he had sent them to jail.

Before the sentence was handed down, both the prosecution and the defense were given the opportunity to make a final statement.

U.S.

Attorney Gordon Zubrod argued for a sentence that would send Chivarella to prison for the remainder of his natural life, saying, quote, the defendant argues he didn't sell juveniles retail.

We agree with that.

He was selling them wholesale.

Mark Chivarella used his statement to apologize to his family and the community.

He also apologized to the juveniles who appeared before him for being a hypocrite.

He claimed that Robert Miracle, Mike Conahan, and himself were good people who just made wrong choices and bad decisions.

He called Robert Powell a liar and a self-centered individual who would say and do anything to protect himself.

Shivarella maintained that he never sold kids for cash, saying, quote, Those three words made me the personification of evil.

They made me the Antichrist and the devil.

Those words caused untold hurt and agony for me and my family.

They made me toxic and caused a public uproar, the likes of which this community has never seen.

I will live the rest of my life with the stigma of placing children for money, a crime which never occurred, and more importantly, for which I never had the opportunity to defend against.

Today, I stand before you, about to be sentenced to a term of imprisonment.

I would only ask that the sentence be for the crimes I was found guilty of committing, and not for a crime or crimes I did not commit.

Mark Shivarella was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $965,000 in restitution.

He is scheduled for release in 2035.

He will be 85 years old.

Mark Chabarella are be able to get the victim of trust.

Outside of the courthouse, the cheers of the citizens of Luzerne County drowned out the prosecution's press conference.

But it didn't matter.

The message was clear.

Justice had been served.

This is Judge Lakuda, a former colleague of Chavirella and Conahan.

We finally have some justice.

This is real justice.

I know that there's a yacht floating around with that name of real justice, but this is real justice for the people of New Zealand County.

Parents of Mark Shavarella's victims were satisfied with the sentence as well.

This is Sandy Fonzo.

Yeah, I mean, this has been eight years that now he's been over my head.

And I, yeah, this is all I could have hoped for today.

Was that, you you know, he got

basically the, you know, the maximum sentence and what is going to be taken away today in hell.

The citizens of Luzerne County were happy to see Chavarella receive a long sentence.

And they seemed surprised that the culture of corruption hadn't allowed him to walk free.

I was glad he got.

I really was.

I thought he was going to get away with it.

I really did.

And I'm pleased.

It couldn't happen to a better guy.

How's that?

Do you think it should have been more?

It could have been more, but I'm just pleased that he even got what he got because he's old and he'll never see Wilson Bear again.

I was happy about it.

I thought he was going to get less, but I'm happy with the 28 years without a chance of parole.

I think justice was served for those kids.

I'm waiting now.

Where is his cohort?

Kanye, the other guy.

Low profile, Conahan.

Where is he?

He should be thrown in the clink too, I think.

Michael Conahan was thrown in the clink.

He was convicted and sentenced to 17 and a half years in federal prison.

Following the convictions, multiple victims filed civil suits against Chavarella, Conahan, Powell, and Miracle, including a class-action lawsuit filed by the Juvenile Law Center.

Settlements ranging from $500 to $5,000 were paid out to over 2,400 juveniles whose cases had been tried by Chivarella.

Furthermore, all of the cases handled by Chivarella from 2003 to 2008 were reviewed and vacated, and every juvenile's record who had been affected by Chivarella had their records expunged.

A small win for a group of kids who had been so wronged.

The nightmare that they had been living for so long was finally over.

Or was it?

On January 9th, 2018, Mark Shivarella's convictions for racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering were thrown out.

His trial attorneys had failed to raise statue of limitations claims on those charges, which had occurred five years before the indictment.

As a result, Mark Shivarello will be awarded a new trial on those particular charges.

It remains to be seen if his sentence will be reduced.

Sandy Fonzo is in disbelief.

Quote, I'm upset by the whole thing, but I'm not shocked.

Nothing could ever shock me again after everything that's happened.

I'm literally sick over it.

I just feel that any decreased time that he gets in prison is nothing but an absolute disgrace.

It just sickens me.

He needs to just go away and give us peace so that we can heal.

This is just, I can't do this again.

This is a nightmare.

An absolute nightmare.

I don't know what life has in store for you.

I don't know what life has in store for me from this moment on.

But I do know that there's only one person, one person in this whole world who can control what happens to me.

That's me.

And there's only one person in your life who can control what happens to you.

And that's you.

Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen.

For more information about the show, check out swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at SwindledPodcast.

We just posted an album of photos related to the Kids for Cash scandal.

There's even a photo of the judge's yacht, the real justice.

We'll also keep you updated on Shivarella's new trial whenever that happens.

All the music in this episode was written and performed by Ethan Helfrich, aka Rest You Sleeping Giant.

His new album titled Celestial Orchestra comes out on April 24th.

You can pre-order the album right now for as little as five bucks at restusleepinggiant.bandcamp.com.

I want to give a huge thank you to Ashley Flowers for providing the voice for the principal's fake Myspace profile.

Ashley is super talented and she hosts her own podcast called Crime Junkie.

It's excellent.

She and her producer Britt do a fantastic job.

You can check them out at crimejunkiepodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

If you want to support swindled, you can do so at patreon.com slash swindled.

For five bucks a month, you'll receive early access to new episodes and exclusive access to bonus episodes.

The Martha Stewart bonus episode will be released very soon.

Don't miss out.

Patreon.com slash swindled.

We also have t-shirts, posters, sweatshirts, and a bunch of other stuff for sale at swindledpodcast slash shop.

Go check it out.

Thanks for listening.

Martha listens to her favorite band all the time.

In the car,

gym,

even sleeping.

So when they finally went on tour, Martha bundled her flight and hotel on Expedia to see them live.

She saved so much, she got a seat close enough to actually see and hear them.

Sort of.

You were made to scream from the front row.

We were made to quietly save you more.

Expedia, made to travel.

Savings vary and subject to availability, Blight inclusive packages are at all protected.