http://www.citizensvoice.com/articles/2009/01/27/news/wb_voice.20090127.t.pg5.cv27cdjudgesciavarella_s1.2260373_top3.txt

Conahan told The Citizens’ Voice in November 1992 (speaking of himself) … “We need someone who has been on the frontline, cleaning up the streets of criminals and those who prey on our young … ”

http://www.citizensvoice.com/articles/2009/01/27/news/wb_voice.20090127.t.pg5.cv27cdjudgesconahan_s1.2260501_top4.txt

Meanwhile… In America… The land of the brave/free/whatever…

Old Bridge man gets 7 years for growing marijuana
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/old_bridge_man_gets_7_years_fo.html

I’ve had a few acquaintances and friends in ‘juvenile detention centers’.

The prison hierarchy and protection system which results in rape and a perverse sort of prostitution in exchange for protection is alive and well in the under-eighteen prisons.

7 years for men who put youngsters in such positions?

I’ve seen worse sentences for smoking pot.

Judges help setup and run supervised visitation centers so that parents who are bad guys can see their kids under the watchful eyes of state contracted monitors, subsidized by the federal taxpayer.

Judges then sometimes draw salaries and other benefits from these visitation centers, and sometimes have relatives working there.

Same judges decide who is a “bad guy”. Turns out, bad guy can be pretty broadly defined, including any parent who hasn’t seen their kid in six months or more, including soldiers returning from Iraq or Afghanistan.

In case you were wondering, parents do have a constitutionally protected right to the care, upbringing, and education of their children, and it is fundamental liberty interest, on par with physical liberty (not being in jail), and protected by the fourteenth amendment’s due process rights See: Troxel V Granville. (Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer. None of this is legal advice).

It’s also the same with child custody. Judges decide how much time each parent spends with his/her child, but in many locations, the judge’s employer, if not the judge himself/herself, get more taxpayer money if he/she decides that the parent earning less gets to spend more time with the child, and the parent earning more gets to spend less time with the child, through Title IV-D conflicts of interest.

Financial conflicts of interest:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/630611/A-Quick-Summary-of-Title-IVD-Funding-and-Incentives

Reports of possible racketeering in one local agency:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/454566/Racketeering-in-Michigans-Friend-of-the-Court

As many said before, these bastards deserved life!

The should have been hanged or shot.

And while I’m extremely cynical, I would be a bit surprised if this plea was accepted.

Some things can be overlooked, but this? If it gets national attention, there really isn’t any way to bury it.
I sincerely hope the victims and their families raise as much hell as is humanly possible about this. I hope they’ve been calling around, trying to find the most bloodthirsty scumbag ambulance chasers in the country.

Because, really, it would be stupid to pretend this level of corruption is possible without *cough* “community support” *cough*

And you can bet that “community support” would like nothing more than for this to go away so they don’t come under scrutiny. It’s stupid to think they won’t try their hardest to make sure this gets taken care of quickly.

Their actions need to be seen for what they are – using the resources of the state to engage in repeated acts of assault and kidnapping of minors.
7 years is unacceptable.
They need to die in prison.

Then again, this is the US legal system…

“Sorry, these guys were Democrats, not Republicans.”

You conflate party affiliation with conservatism. Not a strong correlation.

“And if you haven’t been paying attention, Tom Daschle, Charles Rangel, Chris Dodd and our new Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner are all guilty as sin of tax evasion.”

Seriously? You’re conflating tax evasion with falsely imprisoning children?

I think all those tax dodgers should be removed from public office, but I think these judges need to be in jail until they’re not breathin’ anymore.

And you bringing them into this conversation makes me think you want to decrease the impact of these judges, and that makes me think you’re a pretty despicable person. I don’t care WHAT party you’re in, and I don’t care WHAT political philosophy you espouse. If you wrap yourself in the false mantle of being tough on crime (yes, Virginia, that is a conservative stalking horse), while taking money from people who imprison children, you are a subhuman monster.

Why, the economy would be in shambles!

“Seriously? You’re conflating tax evasion with falsely imprisoning children?”

Cat(whatever)’s comment was about tattooing conservatives (and democrats are not conservatives, sorry) with the motto “Greed is not good”. Tax evasion is greed.

“And you bringing them into this conversation makes me think you want to decrease the impact of these judges, and that makes me think you’re a pretty despicable person.”

Heh. You can’t argue with me so you begin the ad hominem attacks. Nicely played!

And how’s he gonna feel in prison, surrounded by all the kids he unfairly put in there?

We should ban private prisons and start dismantling the prison industrial complex. There should be no profit motive in the prison system.

The 7-year sentence is due to a plea bargain. This didn’t even make it to trial. The restitution payments are going to be huge as well.

Apparently, more judges are prepping to fall in this as well. Of the county’s 7 judges, I think 3 are going to remain after another scandal recently (of which I can’t recall the details). It’s a mess. And a shame that my hometown only makes the news when something like this happens (or if the Office is in town, of course).

We’ve made prison profitable. We’re now surprised the prison operators are purchasing citizens/customers from judges. Really.

Greed is not good. This should be the phrase tattooed across the foreheads of every conservative in the US to commemorate the last 29 years.

And, oh yes, execute the bastards.

I hope they get a stronger sentence and inspire us to give a little more thought to this issue.

this definitively doesn’t mean that our the prison-industrial complex is fundamentally broken, of course, or that it should be a fundamental point of public discourse. just two bad apples. that is all. carry on. steampunk!