Disbarred judges in kids-for-cash scandal ordered to pay victims over $200 million in damages

In the so-called kids-for-cash scandal, Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, as judges shuttered a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit facilities, the wire service also reports.

Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed a large number of children would be sent to PA Child Care and companion facility Western PA Child Care.