Day 2 - The Ciavarella Trial

DAY #2 - Rob Mericle takes the stand.

Testimony in the Mark Ciavarella trial began at about 9:20 am this morning with our old pal Rob Mericle taking the stand. The trial began a little late due to a juror getting stuck in traffic on the corridor of doom, Interstate 81. Not surprising! I hate that road! Once the testimony started Mericle told a story right out of a mob movie. I thought I was reading a script from the movie Good Fellas. I was waiting for the courtroom doors to fly open and machine gun fire to rain down on the packed courtroom. Big Rob told of money laundering, fraud and judicial greed during his first several hours of testimony. He also said that he lied to IRS Agents as well as the Feds because he "did not want to be the one to lay Mark out". If that's not out of The Godfather I don't know what is?

Mericle described how payments, sometimes up to one million dollars were funneled through Attorney Robert "The Slip" Powell and then he (Powell) "Took Care Of It". He also testified of meetings he had with Ciavy regarding the laundering of money. One meeting in particular had Mericle arriving at Ciavy's office only to find the lights turned off and the former judge sitting at his desk only with a small lamp lit. At this meeting "Rocket Rob" entered the office only to see Judge Ciavy place his finger to his mouth to signal for him to be quiet. The judge then wrote on a piece of paper, "wired: Yes, no, circle one." Mericle circled no and the meeting went on. Ciavy told Mericle that he may be in trouble. "He said if that money just went from you to me I'd get a slap on the wrist for a reporting violation," Mericle recalled, "But if it went from you to Bob Powell to me I could go to jail." Mericle said he told Ciavarella there were numerous documents on his desk that said the money went to Powell and that Ciavarella then told him to go back and make sure. Mericle said Ciavarella told him "Rob, I'm not going to ask you to lie or perjure yourself, but go back to your office and recognize that I could go to jail." In other words, lie but don't lie, you know what you have to do. Mericle also implicated former Judge Michael Conahan as the real mastermind behind The Kids For Cash scheme. He threw him under the bus right from the Jump Street! After this testimony, Judge Kosik broke for lunch.

Let me say this, UN-Freakin-Believable! This trial has started off with a real bang and it's not a car bomb. This is made for TV movie stuff. Lying, money laundering, secret meetings and judicial misconduct and we are only in Day 2. What's next? Keep it here for daily updates. Da-Da-Dada. That's a Nightline reference!