Reply #8: One of many stories

[JPZenger]

www.standardspeaker.com February 13, 2009

Excerpts:

"Flo Wallace wanted to see Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. walk out of court Thursday the same way her 15-year-old daughter did after she appeared before him in September 2007 — in handcuffs and shackles. Ciavarella, who served as juvenile court judge from 2001 through last May, sentenced Bernadine Wallace to a month in detention for allegedly posting threatening messages about an acquaintance on the social networking Web site, Myspace.com.

Ciavarella ordered Wallace, 13 at the time, shackled and sent to Camp Adams in Carbon County immediately after her hearing — a marked contrast to the expected three-month gap between the judge’s guilty plea to corruption charges and a sentencing proceeding.

Bernadine Wallace said she was held at Camp Adams for two weeks before being transferred to a privately owned juvenile detention center in Pittston Township. At the facility, owned by Pennsylvania Child Care LLC, Bernadine said she underwent a psychological evaluation by forensic psychologist Dr. Frank Vita, Conahan’s brother-in-law.

Along the way, her psychological outlook has dimmed. “Her mental health has declined something fierce,” Flo Wallace said. “She’s frightened all the time. She’s paranoid. She can’t trust nobody. You try to tell her something, she doesn’t want to believe it.”