Presumption of Guilt - Graham Lorna N.

Presumption of Guilt analyses the genesis and aftermath of the notorious “kids for cash” scandal. Mark A. Ciavarella, Jr. was an unethical juvenile court county judge who was willing to plead guilty to federal crimes as a result of his failure to properly account for millions of dollars he and his colleague received. However, he vehemently denied government allegations that he accepted that money as a quid pro quo for jailing juvenile delinquents.

Nonetheless, media dubbed Ciavarella the “kids for cash judge” and relentlessly covered the ensuing scandal. Pennsylvania officials presumed his guilt and enacted a commission to investigate how to remove the scandal’s taint from the Commonwealth’s juvenile court system. Crimes committed by juvenile delinquents during the period the scandal supposedly occurred were summarily erased, regardless of the severity of those crimes, leaving thousands of innocent victims devoid of justice.

Yet, prosecutors never proved the scandal ever happened. Although the lead prosecutor continued to give it lip service, no evidence was provided. Instead, prosecutors quietly removed the very allegations that had spawned “kids for cash” from the Superseding Indictment at the end of Ciavarella’s trial. Ignoring the utter lack of proof of the scandal’s existence, media falsely reported that Ciavarella was convicted for his participation in a scheme to jail juveniles for profit.

Afterwards prosecutors continued to insist that the scandal was real, referring to those redacted allegations as if they were proven facts. The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit adopted those same unproven, redacted allegations as part of its precedential opinion on the matter. 

This book demonstrates that fake news is real and the Presumption of Innocence is in jeopardy, especially when heinous allegations are presented. It is a reminder to make the government prove its case before accepting what it alleges. That is something neither the media nor public officials did for Ciavarella.