SCRANTON, Pa. (CN) - A former state judge claims in court that two judicial colleagues - who are in prison - conspired with other officials to get her removed from the bench because she was an FBI informant in the "Kids for Cash" courthouse corruption scandal.
In her federal complaint, Ann H. Lokuta claims she was defamed and fired for standing up to former President Judges of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, both of whom are in federal prison for taking $2.6 million in kickbacks to send children to profit-making child detention centers.
Ciavarella was sentenced to 28 years for racketeering, fraud and conspiracy, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Conahan was sentenced to 171 years. Two businessmen involved with the detention center also were sentenced to prison.
Lokuta sued the two disgraced judges and five other people, claiming their conspiracy made her the "first judge ever removed from the office for something other than criminal misconduct."
Lokuta was elected as a Luzerne County Judge in 1991, and re-elected for a 10-year term in 2001.
She says in the complaint that while she was on the bench she was "subject to relentless intimidation and retaliation by the President Judges, particularly Conahan, as they controlled the Luzerne County Courthouse as their private domain and crushed anyone who failed to follow their directives."
Citing a May 27, 2010 report from the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice, which was created to investigate the breakdown of the Luzerne County judicial system, Lokuta claims: "'Conahan wielded tremendous power. He was described by some as 'the boss' and he acted like one. He ran the courthouse like a personal sovereignty, placing friends and relatives on the payroll, sealing records at will and personally assigning cases. Conahan was known for a gentlemanly demeanor, but he was a power-broker, and he was feared.'"
Lokuta says: "The public record attests to 'a climate of fear and intimidation, reprisal and retribution in the Luzerne County Courthouse during the time when... Conahan and ... Ciavarella were the president judges.'" (Ellipses in complaint. Citation not specified, but the quotation apparently refers to the Interbranch Commission report.)
Lokuta claims that before the corruption was exposed, she "attempted to develop a record showing Conahan's and Ciavarella's illicit influence and control over operations at the Luzerne County Courthouse and over courthouse employees who were beholden to, or fearful of, Conahan and Ciavarella."
In 2002, Lokuta claims, along with the Luzerne County Controller, she contacted the FBI and gave it damning information.
Also that same year, Conahan removed Lokuta from the chambers she had occupied for 10 ten years at the Main Luzerne County Courthouse, and put her in "substandard Penn Place offices located several blocks away ... in an effort to remove Lokuta from his workings at the main Courthouse and in an attempt to hamper Lokuta's investigations," according to the complaint.
When the county controller suffered a medical disability, Lokuta says, she decided to meet with the FBI to become an informant.
Lokuta claims that in 2003 she tried to file an Emergency Application with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to exercise King's Bench jurisdiction, and notified the Administration Office of Pennsylvania Courts to try to address the corruption.
Both actions were both dismissed, she says.