No one is above the law, not even former judges. I want to give a shout out to U.S. District Judge Christopher Connor who recently denied another attempt by former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, 72, to win a compassionate release from prison because of medical issues and a fear of COVID.

Ciavarella is serving a 28-year prison term for his role in the “kids-for-cash” scheme which, investigators said, resulted in Ciavarella and another former county judge, Michael Conahan, accepting nearly $3 million in exchange for steering juvenile defendants to for-profit detention centers.

Conahan, 70, was serving 17½ years in a federal penitentiary until his release on home confinement monitoring two years ago.

Although Judge Connor agreed that Ciavarella may have “compelling reasons” for early release from prison, there are many other reasons why he should stay put.

I find it galling that those who are sworn to uphold the law and who are caught with their hand in the cookie jar then want special consideration from the legal system that they were sworn to uphold but didn’t.

This wasn’t Ciavarella’s first attempt to get early release. He tried once before, and Connor turned down that plea as well.

Another public official who has been trying - also without success - to get early release and to have his conviction overturned is former Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, who is serving a 15-year term in federal prison.

Pawlowski was convicted in 2018 after a sensational six-week trial in which prosecutors presented jurors with a mountain of evidence tying him and his political associates to a scheme which would exchange city contracts for contributions to Pawlowski’s unsuccessful U.S. Senate and governor campaigns. This type of scam is known as “pay for play.”

One of the key similarities in the Ciavarella and Pawlowski cases is that neither has shown, even until this day, the least bit of remorse for what they have done and continue to downplay their respective roles and the serious nature of their crimes.

In requesting early release, Ciavarella told the judge that he suffers from pneumonia, bronchitis, hypertension and about a half-dozen other medical conditions which make him susceptible to contracting the COVID-19 virus. He likened his continued incarceration to a death sentence.

Federal prosecutors dismissed Ciavarella’s COVID concerns, noting that just one inmate at the federal prison housing Ciavarella has tested positive for COVID-19.

My main point in commending Connor on being unmoved by Ciavarella’s boo-hoos parallels the views of federal prosecutors, who wrote in response to the former judge’s pleas: “He violated his oath of office by accepting bribes and kickbacks. He laundered millions of dollars in criminal proceeds to hide the illicit funds from the law and public.”

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.