January 08, 2018 04:44 PM
UPDATED 1 MINUTE AGO
A former county judge is getting a new trial on three counts of his conviction in the "kids for cash" juvenile justice scandal.
A federal judge in Harrisburg Monday vacated the charges against 67-year-old former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella (shih-vuh-REHL'-uh) Jr.
The decision gives him a new trial for racketeering and two conspiracy counts, but convictions on nine other charges remain in place.
He's serving a lengthy sentence at a federal prison in Kentucky.
The federal judge says the trial's outcome might have been different if jurors had received a different instruction about the statute of limitations.
Ciavarella took payments from the owner and builder of a pair of youth detention centers.
Prosecutors say he sent youth to the detention centers for a wide range of relatively minor infractions.
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