Benjamin T. Pulliam

King’s College students witness Uganda’s education challenges

First Posted: 4/26/2014 STATE COLLEGE &#8212; Centre County Court of Common Pleas Judge Bradley P. Lunsford assured a group of locals that there would not be a scandal similar to the one that shook Luzerne County in the last decade &#8212; at least not under him.
On Friday night, a showing of a documentary directed by Robert May made its way to the State Theatre that took an inside look at what was known as the &#8221; Kids for Cash&#8221; scandal.
&#8220;Kids for Cash,&#8221; tells the story of former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr., who was &#8220;hell-bent on keeping kids in line,&#8221; May said.
Ciavarella was elected judge in 1995. During his tenure, he sentenced and imprisoned more than 3,000 children for crimes as simple as a fabricated MySpace page, May said. During that time, Ciavarella received more than $2 million in bribes from a privately-owned juvenile detention facility where the children were held.
In the summer of 2011, Ciavarella was sentenced to 28 years for his involvement in the scandal. He&#8217;s serving time at a federal prison in Illinois.
Former Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan was also involved in the scandal after he agreed to send the youth to a private facility instead of one run by the county. He took a plea deal for money laundering, fraud and racketeering charges, and was sentenced to 17 years at a federal prison in Florida and ordered to pay more than $800,000 in restitution.
&#8220;I have a variety of emotions,&#8221; Lunsford said after viewing the film. &#8220;Most come in shock and surprise that this could happen. I have no idea of how something like that could happen in the court system.&#8221;
Lunsford said the first thing he thought of was his secretary who he called his closest adviser for the last 18 years.
&#8220;Something like that would never be OK by her,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It just wouldn&#8217;t happen.&#8221;
May said he began the documentary in 2009 and wrapped it up last August.
&#8220;You go into the filmmaking process with an idea, but come out of it with more,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I have kids, and I think the message is to have respect for kids as kids; not for kids as adults.&#8221;
Justin Bodnar got more than he bargained for after he failed to pay fines for crimes he committed at age 12.
Originally charged with harassment and terroristic threats from a fight, he was eventually in and out of the system for seven years, stripping him of his adolescence, he said.
For Hillary Transue, it was a similar situation, but one that helped end alleged corruption after she made a fake MySpace account when she was 15 in 2007 about her high school&#8217;s vice principal.
&#8220;I was mistreated by the system, but also saved by the system,&#8221; she said.
A legal group from Philadelphia assured her that she needed an attorney after she was advised otherwise, Transue said. She only ended up serving three weeks of a three-month sentence.
Transue turned her negative experience into a positive one by working with a group of others featured in the documentary to address awareness and community outreach.
&#8220;This isn&#8217;t a problem exclusive to our town,&#8221; she said.
State College resident Carole Schneiderman admitted she began to cry when she heard that Edward Kenzakoski committed suicide in the spring of 2010.
Kenzakoski&#8217;s mother, Sandy Fonzo, blamed Ciavarella for her son&#8217;s death after being sentenced to a juvenile detention facility when he was 17 years old.
Her son&#8217;s story was one in a handful of stories told in the documentary about youth who the community believed were unfairly detained at the hands of Ciavarella.
&#8220;The bottom-line is looking at what this did to the kids,&#8221; Fonzo said. &#8220;We&#8217;re hoping for juvenile judicial reform.&#8221;
About a quarter of the theater was filled with locals who wanted to see firsthand what the film was about.
&#8220;It makes me ashamed to be from there,&#8221; said Janette Pryor, who now lives in Bellefonte.
The viewing was followed by a panel discussion with Lunsford, May, Juvenile Law Center attorney Emily Keller and Jay Paterno.
&#8220;Kids for Cash,&#8221; will also be played at 4 and 7:30 p.m. at the State Theatre Sunday and Monday.

‘Kids for Cash’ film reactions: Sadness, shame, ‘shock and surprise’