Larry
Hohol is the author of the new book, "The Luzerne County Railroad". A
story about corruption in the American judicial system, the book will
shake you to your core. Each chapter will leave you amazed by the new
depth of brazen greed and corruption. If you think it couldn't get any
worse, the next chapter will prove you wrong.
If you care about freedom and equality in America, you must read this book!
Were the proceedings to remove Judge Lokuta tainted? That is the real question here. The Chairman of the Judicial Conduct Board was business partners in TWO businesses with the now indicted Judge Conahan. Most of the 30 individuals that testified against Judge Lokuta worked directly for Conahan and Ciavarella and some of them have since also been indicted on corruption charges. Upwards of 40 complaints had been filed against Conahan and Ciavarella prior to the Lokuta proceedings including specifics of case fixing and the “Kids for Cash” scandal. All complaints were deemed to have no merit except for the above mentioned. This specific complaint and investigation was tabled due to the Judge Lokuta action taking priority. It was tabled for years and NEVER investigated by the JCB.
If the standards that were applied to the Judge Lokuta removal were applied to the entire PA Judiciary we would be short a lot of Judges. I feel strongly that the above details clearly show that Judge Lokuta at the very least is entitled to a new, untainted trial. The result may very well be the same but the last time I checked we are not Nazi Germany... just yet.
Imagine Kanjorski calling someone else... anyone else, A CROOK! I don’t think anyone out there thinks that he meant what he said on most subjects let alone this one. I believe he literally didn’t want to take Governor Rick Scott out and put him against a wall and shoot him, however he did say it and it is called rhetoric. Anti-rhetoric is what all the politians who are trying to make hay with these days and are using it to bash their opposition. Kanjorski must not have gotten the memo. As a former constituent of Kanjorski’s and presently a resident of Governor Rick Scotts Florida, I demand that Kanjorski apologize to everyone including the Governor. I demand it! The only measure of a man is what he does after he makes a mistake and mister, this is a beauty. I expect your apology on the very same day that pigs fly.
The Wilkes-Barre School District should change the name of the Daniel J. Flood Elementary School
to the Major Richard Winters Elementary School. Major Winters is a true
American Hero and I would never ask a son of mine to grow up and be just like
Congressman Flood. God bless America.
In a new Scranton Times-Tribune interview Paul Kanjorski ADMITS that there is widespread corruption in his district. Imagine that!
I have a question. In the two plus decades that Mr. Kanjorski served as our Congressman, what did he do about this widespread corruption? At best, NOTHING. At worst, he participated in it. Why didn’t the best and brightest of Corporate America want to participate in the development of Water Jet Technology? The answer is because it had already been developed and I wrote a Letter to the Editor 20 years ago pointing out that fact. Mr. Smoke and Mirrors went forward with our tax money and handed this ridiculous project off to FAMILY MEMBERS who knew nothing of the technology, developed nothing in the technology, and promptly sucked millions of federal dollars out of Kanjorski’s VISION of the technology. They enriched themselves and in the process bankrupted the company without making a single contribution to anything other than themselves.
Do yourself a HUGE favor and watch the following Fox News Special Report titled, Congressman Paul Kanjorski’s Scandal. This man is now going to sit back now and collect a HUGE taxpayer funded pension and spend the rest of his life trying to convince the masses of just how great he was. From the tone of my comments I’ll bet most of you can guess where I would like to see him spend his golden years.
My comments about Judge Lokuta have stirred some impassioned reactions from readers of my newspaper article comments and my blog.
Let me make it clear. I am not a fan of Judge Lokuta. That being said, we know that a number of people who testified against Judge Lokuta were committing felonies at the same time they testified against her. We also know that the Chairman of the Judicial Conduct Board was business partners in TWO businesses with one of those admitted felons (Conahan) thus creating a HUGE conflict of interest. At the very least it appears Judge Lokuta should be reprimanded and probably removed from the bench but not this way. I have had first hand dealings with the Judicial Conduct Board and I am here to tell you that they need to be looked at very, very closely. More importantly, the thought of removing an elected official from any office, regardless of who it is, by anything other than a crystal clear, pristine process totally defeats our constitution and everything that makes us the country that we are. Do I agree that Judge Lokuta should be removed from the bench? Probably! Do I believe that it doesn’t matter if the process to remove her was tainted as long as she goes, absolutely not. I agree however that the Supreme Court is a big part of the problem but for different reasons.
Whether you love Judge Lokuta or you hate Judge Lokuta, what happened to her was a modern day lynching. I have no confidence that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania will do the right thing here as they themselves are part of the problem. I believe the proceedings that removed her from the bench were tainted. No that's too politically correct. I believe that the proceedings that removed Judge Lokuta from the bench were fixed and fixed in a big, big way. I also believe that not only had Conahan and Ciavarella conspired to remove Judge Lokuta because she jeopardized their cushy little kickback arrangement but I also believe that probably more than one member of the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board was involved in this conspiracy.
Without a doubt in my mind I believe that Judge Lokuta should be reinstated to the bench. If it is determined that she should be held accountable for inappropriate actions from that bench I would then be the VERY FIRST person to demand that it happen. Of all of the people in the world, I am the last person to defend a Luzerne County Judge for anything. I believe what happened to Judge Lokuta in this instance is criminal in every sense of the word. Until, or if, she is removed from the bench by untainted proceedings I will always address her as Judge Lokuta.
In order to RESTORE faith in the Luzerne County Juvenile Justice System one would have to first assume that there was ever faith in the system to begin with. That my friends, is a huge assumption. As a vocal critic of the Luzerne County Judiciary for over 20 years I am here to tell you that the more I dug into the cesspool we call the Courthouse the more I came to realize that the system is corrupt all the way to Harrisburg. Mere exposure of this corruption does absolutely nothing to change the status quo. I have personally testified before a State Committee on Judicial Reform. I have filed a formal complaint with the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board and participated in an exhaustive corruption investigation with their Chief Investigator. I have filed an extensive complaint about judicial corruption in Luzerne County with the Pennsylvania State Attorney General’s Office only to have the Attorney General himself (Preate) incarcerated in Federal Prison on corruption charges. I sat down with FBI agents and presented hardcore provable evidence of this corruption 15 years ago. The end result is that things have only gotten much, much, worse than when I first started my odyssey.
Along the way many of those who have also criticized and attempted to expose this corruption have been called horrible names and had their integrity and sanity questioned in the public forum. My dear friend Carolee Medico Olenginski could be the poster child for such attacks.
I personally don’t know District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll but our darkest days occurred during her watch. As far as I am concerned the jury is still out on the DA.
The Juvenile Task Force referenced in this report however well intended will amount to nothing but window dressing if in-fact the powers that be in Harrisburg want the system to remain within their direction and total control. There are reasons why the corruption is as extensive as it is. The reasons DO NOT include lack of exposure, lack of investigative resources, or lack of laws that govern such illegal or unethical behavior. I have come to conclude that the biggest obstacle in reforming the Judiciary is Harrisburg itself.
This new Times-Leader newspaper article caught my attention! Can anyone out there imagine going to trial knowing that the judge and opposing counsel have a very close SPECIAL relationship? I am here to tell you that it happened ALL THE TIME in Luzerne County Court and the second anyone questioned these relationships they were pummeled. After I formally questioned such a relationship former President Judge Patrick Toole responded to me in writing and I quote, "how dare you question the integrity of this court?". I questioned it then as I do now. I even wrote a book about it called The Luzerne County Railroad. More money has been stolen in Luzerne County with a gavel and a briefcase than ever with a gun.
Everyone PLEASE Google the phrase “Kids for Cash”. It is a huge ongoing
scandal involving a privatized prison in Pennsylvania in which thousands
of children were illegally incarcerated over a period of about the last
5 years. Two State Judges have been arrested by the FBI for taking
bribes amounting to over 2.8 million dollars from the prison developers
and the prison operators. The entire safety net system up to and
including the Supreme Court of PA failed to halt these incarcerations
even after they were made aware of their illegality. Over 6000 children
have now had their juvenile records purged from the system and over 30
indictments have been processed to date with no end in sight.
I have
just released a book that outlines the corruption in this specific
courthouse that occurred from the 1990’s up to the current scandal. It
is called, The Luzerne County Railroad (click "The Book" tab at the very top of this page to read more about it). PLEASE look at what is happening in your state and do something about it. Conflicts of interest should
not be tolerated. I am here to tell you that the wholesale incarceration
of adults and/or children for profit is not a myth. It is as real as
Nazi Germany was.
God help us all.
CNN - Judges get $2.6M in kickbacks in exchange for locking kids up.
UPDATE: 4.21.2010. Criminal probe of Pa Judicial Conduct Board (JCB)
sought.
