The victims of the kids-for-cash judicial scandal are slated to receive over $200 million in compensation, a Pennsylvania judge ruled Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner ordered former judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan to pay $106 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages to nearly 300 people.
Compensatory damages are damages awarded to parties at the equivalent of a loss suffered, and punitive damages are damages given in instances of fraud or malice, according to Cornell Law.
The case dates back to 2007, when Ciavarella and Conahan learned that they were under criminal investigation for activities between 2003 and 2007, the Washington Examiner previously reported.
Between those dates, the two judges shut down a detention facility and collected $2.8 million in illegal payments, the Associated Press reported.
Conner wrote that the victims are “tragic human casualties of a scandal of epic proportions.”
Ciavarella ordered children as young as 8 years old — many of whom were first-time offenders for minor infractions, such as petty theft, jaywalking, truancy, and smoking on school grounds, among others — to detention centers. More than 4,000 cases were eventually thrown out by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Conahan has remained silent on the case over the years. He was released from prison to home confinement in 2020 over COVID-19 concerns for the remainder of his sentence, which is six years, AP reported. Ciavarella is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence.
Marsha Levick, a lawyer on behalf of the plaintiffs — most of whom are family members of victims or the victims themselves — stated that it is possible the now-adult victims may not see any of the $200 million.
However, she said it is still a huge victory to have a federal court recognizing the gravity of what the judges did to these children.
