The plea agreements for Luzerne County President Judge Mark Ciavarella (shiv-ah-REL'-lah) and Senior Judge Michael Conahan (CON'-ah-han) call for sentences of more than seven years in prison. Both judges have agreed to step down from the bench.
Authorities say the judges took kickbacks between 2003 and 2007 in exchange for guaranteeing the placement of juvenile offenders into facilities operated by PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care LLC. In some cases, Ciavarella ordered children into detention even when juvenile probation officers did not recommend it.
"They sold their oaths of offices to the highest bidders," Deron Roberts, chief of the FBI's Scranton office, said at a news conference Monday.
U.S. Attorney Martin Carlson stressed the charges were "the first developments in an ongoing investigation" into public corruption at the courthouse in Wilkes-Barre.
PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care have not been charged with wrongdoing.
Luzerne County District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll said her office would review cases in which offenders might have been improperly placed into juvenile detention.