Former Judge Ann H. Lokuta has filed a federal lawsuit against the Luzerne County judges and court officials she believes were responsible for her removal from the bench.
Lokuta, the first woman to sit on the Luzerne County bench, is suing to reverse a state Supreme Court order barring her from running for judicial office. She is also seeking monetary damages.
Lokuta has been off the bench since a state discipline court convicted her in December 2008 of judicial misconduct stemming from allegations she showed up late for court and berated attorneys and court staff
members.
Lokuta, in the lawsuit, reiterated her long-held contention that former county president Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan orchestrated her removal because she cooperated with federal investigators probing their kids-for-cash corruption scheme.
Lokuta claimed the former judges testified against Lokuta before the state Judicial Conduct Board and used their influence over courthouse personnel to persuade more than two dozen other witnesses to testify against her.
Lokuta also named court stenographer Angela Sallemi, former court administrator William Sharkey Sr., former prothonotary Jill Moran and Judicial Conduct Board attorneys Joseph A. Massa Jr. and Francis J. Puskas as defendants in the lawsuit.
The Judicial Conduct Board said in April 2010 it voted to table an investigation into Conahan and Ciavarella in June 2007 at Massa's urging because he expected Conahan to testify at Lokuta’s trial, which
was scheduled to begin in September.
Conahan pleaded guilty in July 2010 to a racketeering charge. He is serving a 17½-year prison sentence. A jury convicted Ciavarella, 62, in February 2011 on 12 of 27 counts, including racketeering and conspiracy. He is serving a 28-year prison sentence.
Sharkey Sr. was sentenced in June 2011 to 10 months in prison for embezzling $70,362 seized by the court in illegal gambling cases.
Moran has also been implicated in the federal corruption probe, which has produced more than 30 arrests.