Judge Claims Judicial Immunity After Being Sued for Judicial Corruption

judge-mark-ciavarella-247x300Now this take a bit of hubris. Disgraced former Pennsylvania judge Mark Ciavarella has moved to discuss federal lawsuits from juveniles who sent to jail after accepting bribes. tax evasion and depriving the public of their honest services for accepting more than $2.6 million in kickbacks in exchange for rulings that benefited the Pa Child Care and Western Pa Child Care centers. In a motion written by himself, Ciavarella demanded dismissal on . . . you guessed it . . . judicial immunity.

Ciavarella first disgraced the court and the bar by selling his office. Now, when confronted with his alleged victims of judicial corruption, he claims that he cannot be sued because he was acting as a judicial officer.

Ciavarella and former judge Michael Conahan pleaded guilty and must serve 87 months in prison — a remarkably light sentence in my view for what they did to these kids. Notably, they were not required to resign from the bar until 10 days after sentencing, so Ciavarella may continue to act as a lawyer. He will not be formally sentenced for at least a month.

Ciavarella cites a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case called the Supreme Court ruling in Stump v. Sparkman (1978) where a women sued a judge who had her sterilized at the request of her mother who described her as her “somewhat retarded daughter.” The girl was told that she having her appendix removed. The Court ruled that circuit judge had ruled within his jurisdiction and thus was immune from liability “even if his approval of the petition was in error.” Of course, the judge did not received a kickback from the hospital.

For the full story, click here.

39 thoughts on “Judge Claims Judicial Immunity After Being Sued for Judicial Corruption”

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  2. In 2007, I filed a lawsuit against the Hooksett School District (New Hampshire) for abusing my son, and not giving him a fair and appropriate public education: Because I have steadfastly refused to withdraw my lawsuit (our rights) the Chief judge provided the cover so that the school’s attorney Jeanne Kincaid could hack into my computer and send me porn, and death threats, and contact my employers and keep chronically unemployed. I lost my condo, pets, piano, books, furniture, and family mementos; my credit, was driven in and out of bankruptcy and had porn, and death threats and annoyance phone calls, as well as dead cats at my door. In depth information can be found at: http://www.fulldisclosure.net/Blogs/83.php Elizabeth Campbell
    PS they have left messages on my phone that states I am not receiving calls, and they have locked me out of my AOL and Gmail accounts! I now live in Maryland, and just lost another job, the first in Maryland…see I have a pending case before the Supreme Court.
    Essentially because Judge Steven McAuliffe provided the cover for Kincaid to deny my rights: IDEA, 504 anti retaliation, Federal and State tort, amendments, 1, 5, and 14 and more. Recently and in response to that info in the above website I loss my job at the Holly Hill Nursing home in Towson, MD. When Kincaid continued her destruction of me at the appellate level, and when my complaints to the Chief Judge Sandra Lea Lynch went un noticed,…ALL MY MOTIUONS DENIED; HARASSMENT OF MY MOTHER AND FRIENDS ETC I realized THAT WAS BECAUSE THE FIRST CIRCUIT COURT IS HEAVILY INVOLVED.
    WHAT CAN I SAY NOW THAT I HAVE APPEALED MY CASE TO THE HIGHEST KCOURT IN THE LAND? AND KINCAID HAS STRIKED AGAIN, CAUSING MY TERMINATION?

    Elizabeth Juanita Campbell
    443-627-8546

    I need publicity, Please help! Thank you
    Elizabeth Juanita Campbell (place my name in Google)I imagine that Jeanne et al is racing to remove the online porn she had placed under my name!.

  3. Bob Dylan Retains Same Illuminati Law Firm as George W. Bush in Fifteen Year Plagiarism Law Suit. Also suppresses Plaintiff’s First Amendment Rights acquiring a protective order designating all video taped depositions that are incriminating to Dylan confidential

    Bob Dylan & his law firm acquired a confidentiality order in a fifteen year plagiarism law suit designating all discovery materials including fifty hours of incriminating video taped depositions as confidential suppressing Plaintiff James Damiano’s first amendment rights to warn the public of Judicial favoritism and corruption.

    Camden NJ June 2, 2009 -Few artists can lay claim to the controversy that has surrounded the career of songwriter James Damiano. Twenty-two years ago James Damiano began an odyssey that led him into a legal maelstrom with Bob Dylan that, to this day, fascinates the greatest of intellectual minds.

    As the curtain rises on the stage of deceit we learn that CBS used songs and
    lyrics for international recording artist, Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan’s name is credited to the songs. One of those songs is nominated for a Grammy as best rock song of the year. Ironically the title of that song is Dignity.

    Since auditioning for the legendary CBS Record producer John Hammond, Sr., who influenced the careers of music industry icons Billy Holiday, Bob Dylan, Pete Seger, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughan, James has engaged in a multimillion dollar copyright infringement law suit with Bob Dylan.

    It is judicially uncontested by Bob Dylan and or Bob Dylan’s law firms Manatt, Phelps & Phillips , Parcher Hayes & Snyder, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Heck Brown and Sherry and Sony House Counsel that Bob Dylan and people in Bob Dylan’s entourage have solicited James Damiano’s songs and music for over ten years and eleven months, as per the law suit.

    District Judge Jerome B. Simandle states in his decision “This court will accept as true Plaintiff’s allegations that Sony represented to him that he would be credited and compensated for his work if Dylan used it. Judge Simandle also stated in his decision “Plaintiff has demonstrated a genuine issue of material fact as to whether defendants had access to his work.

    http://www.jamesdamiano.com/

    Richard Clark

    uslawjournal@gmail.com

  4. mespo and Bron,

    I concede. The “h” is most certainly for “horse’s”.

  5. Ah leave it to my learned scholar.

    Rhodes I am not. a Stoned scholar I have been and I had been known to have inhale. It was generally impossible to have done so, as much as I tried though. And I climbed that Mountain of success. See how much I have forgotten. But then again, one could not read too well in those days. We were spoon fed at the dread that we would go to the 7-11 and steal the Twinkies.

  6. Slipery One:

    Actually Acton wrote:

    “I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they did not wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.”

    –Letter to Mandell Creighton (April [3? or 5?], 1887)

    A little different that commonly quoted. I find the next sentence more prescient.

  7. I thought it was Lord Acton in 1887 who wrote: “All power tends to corrupt and absolute power, corrupts absolutely.”

    But the again the only thing I know absolutely is Absolut.

  8. This judge will walk. Definitely. The level of corruption is so astounding within our courts tht most people simply would not believe how the system actually works. I could hardly believe it myself had I not witnessed it for myself. Any justice being dispensed is purely by accident. Lord Byron was right in saying absolute power corrupts absolutely. And so, it has.

  9. I think that Judicial Immunity shall apply to all Judges that are acting within the scope of their Judicial authority. Come on isn’t PA, close to NY or on the way to Chicago? Where the best Justice can be bought?

    I think that this guy should be burried in the Hot Arizona sand up to his neck. dribble honey on his forehead and plant an anthill next to him. Thats all, I wish him the best.

  10. Mespo:

    “Buddha:

    “I do wonder if the “h” in hasshole stands for Harry though.”

    **************************

    I just assumed is was “horse’s.””

    Another wonderful example of good humor!

    MikeS:

    Those guys did kick some NAZI ass and good on them. Defiance also had Daniel Craig right? If that was the movie it was great. Those 2 brothers and the others were magnificiant.

    I support Israel all the way and I am a conservative. It just makes logical sense as they are the only democracy in the middle east plus they are some tough people being able to make and keep a country under conditions like they live with. They are worth our blood and treasure. Please dont think all republicans/conservatives think alike.

  11. greta,
    How precious, you watched “The Boy in The Striped Pajama’s.
    As a Jew that warms my heart, nothing like a film whose sole emotional pivot was that a German boy, whose father was in the SS get mistakenly killed as a Jew. It like “The Reader” was a basically dishonest movie of the Holocaust, that so lovingly showed those poor, helpless Jewish victims. Your insight was that President Obama shouldn’t have bowed to the Saudi King, while the King’s relative Prince Bandar was known as Bandar Bush and was seen holding hands with George W. frequently. Facts would be a good thing for you to know and if your’e not Jewish, please we don’t need any false Shoah sympathy from you.

    Want to see a “good” movie about the Shoah, see “Defiance,” which was based on fact. I know this is so since my daughter is friendly with the granddaughter of the lead character played by Mandy Patimkin. So many Christians would like to believe the myth of Jews passively going to their deaths and are warmed by the pathos. The Warsaw Ghetto battle is subsumed by visions of Jews passively lining up to die. How relevant for Christian’s who talk of Jesus “as a lamb to the slaughter.” I, however, prefer history closer to the truth and one that doen’t portray Jews as passive victims. You don’t hang around as a tiny culture for more than three thousand years without some grit.

    Now if you happen to be Jewish than greta you are way out of step. Three quarters of Jewish Americans voted for President Obama and still enthusiastically support him. The remaining 25% are led by Jews who complete misunderstand the needs of Israel and were Republicans to begin with. A Jewish Republican by the way is like a Black Republican. A stranger in a strange land that’s willing to sit down with people that covertly revile them.

  12. lenin…:

    “Obama thus repeats the slander that the pointless abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib by a handful of low-life Army Reservists was part of President Bush’s “strategy to battle terrorism.” This is an absurdity. The Reservists in question violated every known policy, which is why they went to jail when their crimes were discovered.”

    ***********

    I think truth is an absolute defense to the charge of slander.

    From the Christian Science Monitor in 2004 (new stuff you see):

    “Already, interviews with members of military intelligence and police units who served at the prison suggest that abuses did not simply result from a handful of low-level soldiers in the facility’s loosely supervised and undermanned military police force. So far, only seven such soldiers have been charged in the case.

    Instead, as details emerge of the physical abuse and deaths of scores of Iraqi and Afghan detainees in US military custody, other documents and reports suggest a contributing factor was the top-down weakening of military standards of humane prisoner treatment as part of the Bush administration’s drive for intelligence in the war on terrorism.”

    Now of course we know that Bushie, Condie, Cheney et crooks all discussed the torture at Gitmo and one must assume their conspiracy to commit war crimes extended to that terroist reruiting bonanza, Abu Graib:

    “In a stunning admission to ABC news Friday night, President Bush declared that he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details of the CIA’s use of torture. Bush reportedly told ABC, “I’m aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.” Bush also defended the use of waterboarding. Recent reports indicate that high-level advisers including Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and George Tenet were part of the National Security Council’s “Principals Committee” that met regularly and approved the CIA’s use of “combined” “enhanced” interrogation techniques, even pushing the limits of the now infamous 2002 Justice Department “torture memo.” These top advisers reportedly signed off on how the CIA would interrogate suspects – whether they would be slapped, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning.

    “We have always known that the CIA’s use of torture was approved from the very top levels of the U.S. government, yet the latest revelations about knowledge from the president himself and authorization from his top advisers only confirms our worst fears,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “It is a very sad day when the president of the United States subverts the Constitution, the rule of law, and American values of justice.”

    Lenin, facts are fun; you should try them sometimes when you argue, because they might fool us into thinking you actually know something instead our current opinion of you: that you are merely a tool for the neo-con criminals that ran this Country for eight long years.

  13. lenin…:

    “As someone above pointed out. You half dozen WEASELS here are very sick people led by a very sick party that is intent on making the US of A a second rate maybe even third world country for personal gain.”

    ****************

    Good idea, but Bush, Cheney, Haliburton, and Blackwater beat us to it!

  14. Hasshole,
    I am shocked that you brought up the allegedely improper bow by Obama to the King of Saudi Arabia. Isn’t this the same guy who strolled,holding hands with a guy named W around the Crawford, Texas ranch of your BFF George Bush? You are kidding aren’t you? Wake up and do a little research.

  15. Well, North Korea launched their missile 15 minutes ago, precisely while our President Obama is having another of his famous COCKTAIL parties with the rich and famous; this time in Europe.

    What did they say about Nero?

  16. greta:

    And I suspect you and your half dozen “christian patriots,” would happily push the world toward nuclear annihilation confident that your deity would ride to the rescue to save you and Israel. If Israel really believes this delusion that they were immune from the forces of this world, why do you suppose they put an army in the field?

    By the way, we only blame America when she’s wrong. Don’t you correct your children when they are about to do something wrong or foolish, or do you care so little about them so as to praise them regardless of their conduct?

  17. Just watched “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” set in Nazi Germany and came to the realization you half dozen weasels here would let it all happen again.

    Just look at our “President”, bowing to the Saudi Arabian King like some kind of servant to him at the the G20 meeting. My God, what a way to send a signal to the world that we are weak.

    YOU half dozen WEASELS would let another holocaust happen while you make excuses and blame America.

    Shame.

  18. Buddha:

    “I do wonder if the “h” in hasshole stands for Harry though.”

    **************************

    I just assumed is was “horse’s.”

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