September 9, 2012
Half a MILLION views of my video, "Worse than Rodney King - The Robert Leone Story" in less than 90 days. That is the good news. The bad news is we still don't have a federal investigation started and we still don't have a single politician that has publicly condemned the actions of the State Police or condemn the official coverup. NOT ONE! Not even the dog catcher.
Posted by Larry Hohol. Posted In : Larry's News
June 25, 2012
The release of my documentary concerning a police brutality case in Bradford County Pennsylvania appears to be going viral. In 4 days we have had over 7000 views of this 37 minute video. Actual dash cam video and audio clearly show this man was not combative in any way but was beaten and tasered repeated even AFTER he was shackled, hogtied, and totally submissive. The scariest part of all of this is that the Internal Affairs Dept of the PA State Police, Bradford County District Attorney, Bradford County Judge Jeffery Smith, and this man’s Public Defender all watched this same dash-cam video and did nothing about it. No, it is even worse than that. They prosecuted or allowed the prosecution of the victim. He is presently incarcerated in the Bradford County Corrections Facility where he has been since March of 2010. Please watch www.worsethanrodneyking.com and then pass it along. Something must be done about this horrific assault.
Posted by Larry Hohol. Posted In : Larry's News
December 10, 2011
I am trying to think back over the decades of how many civil and criminal cases have been fixed in Luzerne County. It is mind boggling. The Citizen's Voice caught a number of huge breaks here. Judge Ciavarella being found guilty of corruption is on the top of the list. Another break is that the Voice had deep enough pockets to continue on for almost a decade. The scariest part of all of this is the fact that NONE of the safety nets worked. The Appeals Court rubber stamped Ciavarella's original tainted decision regardless of the evidence. The JCB could not be bothered and justice.......real justice never once showed her face until now, ten years later. If Ciavarella was not taken down the Citizens' Voice would have been required to pay this 3.5 million dollar award as adjudicated by one of the most corrupt judges in the history of the United States.
Those of us who didn't have our Trial Judge arrested on corruption charges have simply dried on the vine and blown away. That being said, I am extremely happy that this particular case turned out the way it did. I am proud of the Citizens' Voice for fighting till the end.....no matter what and I am extremely embarrassed that I am a native of the most corrupt county in the most corrupt state in these United.
Citizen's Voice - Judge sides with Citizen's Voice in decade long defamation battle
Posted by Larry Hohol. Posted In : Current News
November 23, 2011
From the November 11, 2011 The Legal Intelligencer, written by Hank Grezlak. My comment follows the article.
It's Open Season on Children in Pennsylvania
In light of the Penn State sex abuse scandal, Pennsylvania really needs to change its nickname from the Keystone State to the Child Abuser State.
The shameful moniker fits. After a decade that has already included the Archdiocese of Philadelphia priest sex abuse scandal and the Luzerne County judicial scandal featuring "kids-for-cash," how can anyone argue that it isn't a fitting label?
In all three instances, powerful people and powerful institutions failed to protect the most vulnerable and innocent in society: children.
In all three instances, authorities were made aware of harm or wrongdoing being committed, and did nothing.
In all three instances, people have made excuses for those in power who failed to act, either by failing to report or investigate, allegations of misconduct.
As with the previous two scandals, in the wake of the Penn State disgrace, there will be much hand-wringing and demonizing of a few, along with committees and panels appointed. Inevitably, recommendations will be made that will largely be ignored.
There will be a push to put more laws on the books and stiffen penalties, but those largely will be punitive and after the worst has already been done. We're not hurting for prosecutors bringing high-profile cases and getting convictions. But again, that's about seeking justice after the worst has happened, not about protecting kids in advance.
We, as a society in Pennsylvania, have failed to protect our kids.
Protecting children is not just about things like Megan's Law. It's having every citizen, regardless of job title or position, conditioned to understand that there is no higher duty than to protect the young.
If you see a 10-year-old boy, his little hands pressed against the wall, being anally raped in the shower, you call the cops. Not your dad or your boss. That's, of course, if you haven't already kicked the rapist's ass yourself.
I apologize for using the graphic language above with regard to the one alleged attack in the Penn State debacle, but we need to confront the ugly truth here. "Sexual assault," while hardly a cheery term, just doesn't deliver the awful gravity that the details do.
Some will argue: "That's Penn State, not everywhere else. That's what happens when football coaches and jocks aren't held accountable."
To which my scholarly retort is: Bullshit. Look at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the Luzerne disaster. Religious and legal institutions also failed to protect kids.
The Penn State scandal hit me hard last weekend, leaving me sickened and angered. My father went to Penn State, and I was raised a Penn State and Joe Paterno fan. As a kid I joked that the chain of command I was supposed to follow went God, my parents, the pope, then Joe Paterno ... and actually Joe Paterno was number three.
I went to Penn State football camp every summer in high school. I met Joe several times there, and at various award banquets, and he was always charming and thoughtful, and radiated the integrity he always portrayed.
I also trained with the other high school linebackers at Penn State's camp and met Jerry Sandusky. In hindsight, it sounds ridiculous to say this, but at the time he left a huge impression on me. He was the first good football coach I ever encountered who wasn't a yeller and screamer, but simply a charismatic teacher. He was funny and kind and he inspired us to perform well without yelling, which was a novelty to me and others at the time.
While Sandusky is innocent until proven guilty, the evidence appears considerable. I was very unsettled this weekend to hear that a guy I grew up admiring could be accused of such horrible things. I couldn't believe that someone like Paterno, who almost always seemed to do the right thing, could fail so miserably to take the proper moral action.
When I heard the initial reports, as appalled as I was, I was initially relieved to hear that Paterno had reported the incident to his boss. Then more details came out and I realized, regardless of the law, Paterno had failed to do the right thing.
It reminded me immediately of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's failure to address sex abuse by its priests, which resulted in not one, but two grand jury reports.
We're all accountable to some degree, for what we've allowed to happen here. We have not conditioned our citizens to think of kids' safety first, rather than protecting (or fearing) corrupt institutions.
We're accountable because we've failed to create a framework in our society that supervises, monitors and serves as a check on these institutions, two of them private, that have failed to properly protect potential child victims.
We're accountable because we haven't made it a priority to expand the resources and budgets of our various children and youth agencies.
We're accountable because we've relied too much on private charitable organizations to provide the support and services that kids need, and that aren't required to be as open as government, nor as stringently regulated.
We're accountable because we haven't applied continued pressure on these institutions to follow through and clean up their acts. A second grand jury report was issued regarding the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. While steps have been taken with regard to juveniles in relation to the Luzerne County scandal, large scale reforms to the Judicial Conduct Board, which was alerted to the corruption of the ex-judges and did nothing, have collected dust. And yes, if more than a year has passed since the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice issued its recommendations and nothing has happened to either the structure or the personnel at the JCB, then it's collecting dust.
Shame on us all.
Look, writing a bunch of new laws and regulations is easy. That's not the heat that's going to kill this cancer.
It goes deeper than that. It's a cultural issue. Institutions and their leaders need to be held accountable. Almost all corruption starts with secrecy and insularity. Openness should be demanded of all our institutions. Leaders who fail to protect kids and their apologists need to be confronted and driven from their holes.
People need to understand that no individual or institution, no matter how large and powerful, comes before the needs and safety of children. Powerful people and powerful institutions are aided in their corruption when people are afraid to criticize, or worse yet, attack those who do. Good individuals and institutions can withstand criticism. Corrupt ones crumble from scrutiny.
For too long we've had an old-boy culture in this state that lets the powerful put their interests ahead of the greater good. That culture needs to be smashed to pieces.
Think I'm making too much of this? Then think of that scared, violated little boy getting raped in the shower by a grown man. Recognize that horror story is just the latest in a decade full of them.
Then ask yourself two questions.
Have we done enough? Have you had enough?
My comment follows:
What the Penn State and Kids for Cash scandals have in common
There is plenty Moral Failure to go around here. I rarely paint with a broad brush but the Legal Profession as a whole is right up there at the top of my list. I am a Luzerne County Native so the Kids for Cash scandal reigns’ supreme in my short term memory. There was no error or mistake that allowed 6000 children to be illegally jailed by two BRIBED judges in Luzerne County. There was a complete corruption and abandonment of laws and morals by all participants. This includes the court’s oversight agencies, especially the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. These horrific acts against the children of Luzerne County were allowed to continue for years with both oversight agencies possessing detailed knowledge of these crimes and doing NOTHING to stop them. Huge, documented conflicts of interest such as the son of a retired Supreme Court Chief Justice owning the Kiddy Prison that paid bribes to the judges and the Chairman of the JCB being business partners (two businesses) with Kids for Cash, Judge Conahan, have been completely ignored. I am here to tell you that if the FBI had not stepped in when they did these crimes WOULD be continuing unabated to this very day no matter how loudly the citizens of Luzerne County screamed about it.
Just like Penn State, powerful people knew of the evil and did NOTHING to correct this evil. Fear in many forms probably misguided many of those who should have taken action. Many have questioned what they would do if placed in the same shoes of those now scorned in both scandals. Without doubt, I know what I would have done and I know what I will continue to do. For over 30 years, I and a handful of other vilified citizens have been screaming from the rooftops about the corruption and moral decay of our judicial system. It is not just our children who are victims here rather these children are examples of just how all encompassing our moral demise has become.
Attorneys are on the front lines and deal with this decay on a daily basis. Very few attorneys will ever, in their entire career file misconduct charges against any sitting judge in Pennsylvania regardless of the evidence they possess. As individual Attorneys I understand the pitfalls of such an undertaking but your Bar Associations are VERY powerful. To all of the good Attorneys out there, PLEASE HELP. To all of the bad Attorneys out there, start looking over your shoulder. We have had enough.
Posted by Larry Hohol. Posted In : Kids for Cash Scandal
October 6, 2011
Please read this article first. Here is the link:
The Legal Intelligencer - Legal Observers Say Conahan's Sentence Fair, Starting Point for Healing
I couldn’t disagree more with all that were interviewed for this article. I am a Luzerne County Native and a former Law Enforcement Officer from this County. I am here to tell you that Ex-Judge/Convicted Felon Conahan told the biggest lie of his life while he addressed his victims and the Sentencing Judge. He stated the system was not corrupt, he was. The Chairman of the Judicial Conduct Board was his business partner in two separate and distinct businesses during this time frame. Conahan was the highest profile witness called when a fellow judge suspected of a whistle blowing attempt on the "Kids for Cash" scandal was brought before the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline on non-criminal misconduct charges. This Judge (Lokuta) became the first Judge in the history of Pennsylvania to be removed from the bench without first being charged with a crime. The top 4 (highest profile) witnesses to testify against Judge Lokuta have since been arrested on corruption charges.
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania had a detailed "kings bench petition" presented to it requesting emergency intervention in the "Kids for Cash" scandal long before the FBI made their arrests. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition without comment. At best the Supreme Court was inept. I am thinking culpable after all, the son of a former Supreme Court Chief Justice was an owner of the Kiddy Prison at the heart of this scandal.
Former President Judge Conahan was charged by a Federal Grand Jury on a laundry list of 48 felony counts. He pleaded guilty to one. The feeling of injustice and continued cover up are apparently shared by most everyone in Luzerne County with the exception being that of members of the Bar Association. As much as those in power would want to take a collective sigh of relief and get back to business as usual I am here to tell you there is a large ground swell of very unhappy, law abiding citizens who will not let any of this rest. Business as usual will not be business as usual. Not without a fight.
Posted by Larry Hohol. Posted In : Kids for Cash Scandal
October 2, 2011
Ex-Judge Conahan told the biggest lie of his entire life when he stated that the system was not corrupt. The system all the way through failed to stop both of these judges. The Judicial Conduct Board knew the bulk of the issues that these two corrupt judges were eventually charged with. Instead of investigating as the board is "REQUIRED" to do, the board tabled a detailed anonymous complaint against these very judges and instead went after the Judge suspected of being the author. This same board removed this whistle blowing judge and made her the very first judge in the history of Pennsylvania to be removed from the bench without first being charged with a crime..........any crime. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania was petitioned by a Juvenile Advocacy group out of Philadelphia that listed in painful detail the plight of our children in Luzerne County at the hands of these criminals. Their petition was dismissed without so much as a comment. The FBI came to investigate this matter because the entire system that was in place to stop such atrocities failed to do their jobs. The Chairman of the JCB at this time was business partners with Conahan and one of the owners of the Juvenile Detention Center at the heart of entire scandal is none other than the son of a retired Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Where is the follow up investigation of these serious conflicts of interest? Where is the outrage? Politics as usual in the corruption capital of the country.
Posted by Larry Hohol. Posted In : Kids for Cash Scandal
September 29, 2011
Can someone.......anyone, please explain to me how Attorney Powell took $770,000 out of his company's cash flow and his business partner DID NOT NOTICE???? In the REAL world this would be so close to impossible that it would not even be considered, yet the US Attorney wants us all to believe that Powell's partner didn't know anything about it. How was it handled on the tax return for the company? I am here to tell you that if $770,000.00 was missing from my company's cash flow and I suspected my business partner of taking it for any reason without my knowledge, law enforcement would have been involved El-Pronto.....! I for one am insulted.
The Times Leader - Sentencing for Robert Powell set for November
Posted by Larry Hohol. Posted In : Current News
September 27, 2011
The link below is a very well written and thought out article. I know for a fact that whoever starts out in a lawsuit with the deepest pockets usually prevails. Right or wrong, black or white has little to do with the outcome. Just when I thought things couldn't get much worse, it appears that the powerful elite are now going to use the courts to quiet the masses. I am here to tell you that the courts are as much a political machine as any out there. The scariest part is that judges are rarely held accountable for egregious rulings and will, without hesitation permanently seal records from public view to hide their own digressions as did former President Judge Conahan. Appellate Courts offer little more than "rubber stamping" of even the most outrageous of rulings. I have no dog in the fight that is referenced in the attached article but will be watching it very closely as it appears the stage is being set for some serious First Amendment issues.
Citizen's Voice - Lawsuits against citizen activists punish all of us
Posted by Larry Hohol. Posted In : Thoughts about Judicial Corruption
September 24, 2011
I want everyone to understand that this is what Former Judge Conahan voluntarily pled guilty to and voluntarily accepted as his punishment. He was indicted on 47 other counts, most of which were more serious than this single charge. The only one who made out here today was Conahan and he is going to jail for a long time. When he addressed Federal Judge Kosik he made it very clear he was not going to “Rat” on anyone. He stated, “The system is not corrupt, I am corrupt”. Of all the lies Ex-Judge Conahan has ever told, this is by far the largest. I swear I could hear the powers that be in Harrisburg take a big fat sucking sigh of relief. Conahan knows where all the bodies are buried in Harrisburg and he made it really clear, he’s not taking anyone with him. Guess what Harrisburg. We don’t need Conahan to expose exactly what has been going on. We don’t need him one bit. See you soon.
Posted by Larry Hohol. Posted In : Kids for Cash Scandal
September 8, 2011
Due to the severe and dangerous weather, my trip to Northeastern Pennsylvania has been cancelled. Obviously I will not be attending the Luzerne County Fair and my Book Signing at Barnes and Noble will be rescheduled.
Posted by Larry Hohol. Posted In : Larry's News
