This is/was NEPA
This is/was NEPA
It always has started at the top!
BY DAVE JANOSKI
PROJECTS EDITOR
Published: Friday, February 27, 2009 3:24 PM EST
Former Luzerne County president judge Michael T. Conahan met William ?Big Billy? D?Elia for breakfast twice a month to discuss pending court cases and once assured the mobster of a ?positive outcome? in a defamation lawsuit filed by one of his friends, a D?Elia associate claims in a document to be filed today in state Supreme Court. The friend was later awarded $3.5 million by a judge who is Conahan?s co-defendant in a corruption case.
D?Elia associate Robert J. Kulick alleges he and D?Elia met with Conahan twice monthly for eight years in an unnamed Wilkes-Barre restaurant, according to documents to be filed by the parent company of The Citizens? Voice, which was a defendant in the defamation case. The newspaper has asked the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict.
Conahan steered the defamation case filed by Thomas A. Joseph to the courtroom of Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., who is Conahan?s co-defendant in a federal kickbacks case, the newspaper?s attorneys allege. Ciavarella ruled in Joseph?s favor following a non-jury trial in 2006.
?On several occasions, D?Elia told me that he had discussed the Joseph case with Judge Conahan, that Judge Conahan had told him he had discussed the case with the Judge Ciavarella, and that the outcome of the case was going to be positive for Joseph,? according to a declaration by Kulick included in the documents to be filed today.
Kulick?s declaration says he and D?Elia discussed pending cases with Conahan on various occasions.
?If I or someone I knew had an interest in a particular case pending before that Court, I would ask Judge Conahan to consider that the party I supported got a ?fair shake? or a ?second look,?? Kulick said, according to the declaration.
Kulick said it was his ?understanding? that Conahan, who controlled judicial assignments as president judge from 2002 through 2006, would speak to other judges who handled matters that interested him and/or D?Elia.
During the breakfast meetings, D?Elia would often leave the table while Kulick discussed a case that interested him with Conahan and Kulick would leave the table if the discussion involved a case in which only D?Elia had an interest, the declaration said.
The declaration makes no allegation that the three men exchanged money or other favors in connection with the cases. It notes that Kulick supplied the newspaper?s attorneys with additional details and information, which he would testify to at possible future hearings in the case. Attorneys for the newspaper said they would not comment on the documents to be filed today.
Kulick, who served time on a felony tax evasion conviction in the late 1980s, has pleaded guilty to gun-possession charges in federal court and is awaiting sentencing. D?Elia cooperated in the firearms investigation, federal prosecutors say.
President Judge Chester B. Muroski, who was elected by his fellow judges to replace Ciavarella, said he had never heard that Conahan had approached other judges about their cases.
?He never talked to me,? Muroski said.
Conahan and Ciavarella, who have pleaded guilty to accepting $2.6 million in kickbacks in connection with juvenile detention contracts, could not be reached for comment. Conahan?s attorney, Philip Gelso, declined comment. Ciavarella?s attorney, Albert Flora Jr., did not return a phone call seeking comment.
James Swetz, an attorney for D?Elia, who is serving nine years on federal money laundering and witness tampering charges, issued the following statement from his client:
?In no way was I involved with the judges and the juvenile detention center and the Thomas Joseph lawsuit.?
Joseph and his attorney, George W. Croner, could not be reached for comment.
Kulick could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Michael A. Schwartz, did not return a phone message.
In the declaration, Kulick, 60, said he has known D?Elia since childhood and developed relationships with Conahan and Ciavarella after he opened a restaurant in an office building near the courthouse in 1999.
?My relationship with Judge Ciavarella was primarily social in that I would have him as a guest at my house from time to time or see him at various functions. My contact with Judge Conahan ? was considerably more extensive,? the declaration says.
Kulick said he met with Conahan occasionally in his chambers, but most meetings took place outside of the courthouse. The meetings occurred from 1999 until 2007. During that period, Conahan?s chambers were either in the main courthouse or in a courthouse annex, depending on his assignment. On at least one occasion, D?Elia and Kulick met Conahan in his office in the main courthouse, the declaration says.
The meetings ended in 2007 when Kulick?s wife received a grand jury subpoena regarding a letter of recommendation Conahan had written for her when she was applying to establish an Internet gambling site in the Netherlands Antilles in 2005, the declaration says.
Hey Jack you know about this offshore deal
In other documents to be filed today, attorneys for The Citizens? Voice argue that records from the Luzerne County Court Administrator?s office prove that Conahan influenced Ciavarella?s assignment to the Joseph case.
A notation in a database of nearly 4,600 civil cases disposed of in county court since the mid-1990s says the Joseph case was ?assigned per MTC-WTS? to Ciavarella. MTC are Conahan?s initials. WTS are the initials of former court administrator William T. Sharkey Sr., Conahan?s first cousin, who has pleaded guilty to embezzling $70,000 in court funds. No other case in the database bears a similar notation.
Attorneys for the newspaper argue they were assured by Conahan the Joseph trial would be assigned randomly by the court administrator?s office, as was the practice with all other civil trials.
Joseph, 65, sued The Citizens? Voice over its coverage of 2001 federal raids at his home and business and D?Elia?s home. Federal affidavits filed in connection with those raids quoted confidential informants who suspected Joseph and D?Elia were engaged in money laundering.
Joseph was never charged.
Conahan, 56, and Ciavarella, 58, are free pending sentencing. Under their plea agreements, they will serve 87 months in prison.
