this judge, Ciavarella, got 28 years;
the other judge, Conahan, who not only sold kids but also helped prevent use of the county's facility, got 17.5 years in prison; [2]
Robert Powell, an attorney that passed the bribes and part owner of the facility, got 18mos in prison and $60k in fines (it is unclear how much he will serve), plus he gets to serve in Miami to be close to his family. He did apparently cooperate and wear a wire. [2]
Robert Mericle, the real estate developer who built the two facilities, paid $2.15MM to fund childrens' health programs and will likely serve 1 year or even just probation;
And then you read, from the wiki article [1], "Sandy Fonzo, whose son Edward Kenzakoski committed suicide after Ciavarella gave him a jail sentence, despite Kenzakoski's first-time offender status" and I sit here amazed. Millions of dollars of theft, bribes accepted not only for children but in cases as well, children sold for cash, children pushed into suicide... I'd say all of them got a slap on the wrist.
The other thing, unremarked upon by the wiki article, is I wonder who else knew about this? Just like Annie Dookhan, who was faking drug test results in Boston and sent hundreds at least to prison, possibly tainting thirty four thousand verdicts, or Jonathan Salvador, who was doing similar things in texas [4], tainting five thousand convictions, I'd bet good money there where people who saw this happening. Did you read some of the convictions? "He once sentenced a teen to three months in jail for creating a MySpace page that mocked her school’s assistant principal." Many of these fucking pigs knew what was going on, knew how to fuck a kid who was mouthy or didn't kiss their asses and send them to the judge that would send the kid up the river. Moral: never trust a pig.
from [4]
Worse yet, the lab Salvador worked for knew he was doing a bad job for
years. A DPS investigative commission found that Salvador was asked to
correct mistakes in about a third of all the tests he ran. Periodic job
evaluations noted that Salvador struggled with an overall understanding of
chemistry and that his problems were very systemic and his work right on the
edge of tolerable, though not catastrophic.
It could probably be described as catastrophic now. Twenty cases have been
overturned so far, voiding almost 160 years of prison sentences. If all of
Salvador's cases are thrown out, which is looking more likely, the lost
sentences will total more than 10,000 years.
In Walker County, DA David Weeks has already given up. His
office tried to retest evidence from Salvador's cases, but the results were
haphazard, Weeks told the Hunstville Item. In a case where [Salvador] said
there was drugs, there wouldnt be. And when he said there were no drugs,
there were drugs. "Its clear that all the cases [Salvador] worked on are
irreparably damaged, Weeks said. He's already making arrangements to expunge
the records of every affected defendant. It blew up in our faces.
sources: [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal
[2] http://citizensvoice.com/18-month-sentence-for-powell-kids-f...
[3] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210168/Boston-state...
[4] http://www.texasobserver.org/fake-lab-results-endanger-thous...
[5] http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Drug_War_Eats_Itse...
edited: I accidentally clicked submit while still editing