More Luzerne County dirt

Timothy McNulty | October 12, 2009

We've written before about the shame the Luzerne County judges scandal has brought upon the state judicial system, as well as its self-serving pension plan. Add another one to the list -- one of the judges, Michael T. Conahan, held a mortgage for years on a strip club property outside Philadelphia, but never mentioned it on financial disclosure forms. He and Mark Ciavarella have been charged in a $2.6 million kickback scheme for inappropriately sending hundreds of youths to juvenile detention centers.

From the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader:

While he was a district justice and when he became a Luzerne County judge, Michael T. Conahan held a $300,000 mortgage on The Golden Slipper Lounge outside Philadelphia.

People familiar with the area in Bristol Township, Bucks County, said the property has been home to several gentlemen's clubs over the past 20 years or more when the thoroughfare was known as New Rodgers Road.

Conahan did not list the monthly payments from the lounge owner, 3025 M&M Inc., the judgment awarded him in 1995 stemming from a foreclosure on the mortgage or the satisfaction of the loan two years later on the financial statements he was required to submit to the state as a judicial officer.

(h/t to GrassrootsPa)