[4] Along with his fellow Luzerne County judge Mark Ciavarella, Conahan was found to be involved in the Pennsylvania "kids for cash" scandal in 2008.
A witness in that case testified that in 1986, then-Magisterial District Judge Conahan called to tip him off that his drug connection was being investigated.
[12][13] The Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board received four complaints about Conahan between 2004 and 2008, but later admitted it failed to investigate any of them, nor had it sought documentation regarding the cases involved.
[15] An additional investigation into improper sentencing in Luzerne County began early in 2007 resulting from requests for help from several youths that were received by the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center.
In April 2008, the Center petitioned the Pennsylvania Supreme Court seeking relief for alleged violation of the civil rights of those young defendants.
The court initially denied the application for relief, then in January 2009 after charges of corruption against both the judges surfaced, it reconsidered in favor of the appellants.
[17] Part of the investigation concerned issues that had been raised during disciplinary hearings over the conduct of another former Luzerne County judge, Anne H.
[18] In November 2006, Lokuta appeared before Pennsylvania's Judicial Conduct Board to respond to accusations that she used court workers to do her housework, displayed bias against attorneys arguing cases before her, and publicly humiliated courthouse staff causing those employees mental distress.
[21] The supreme court decided, 4–1, to uphold Lokuta's removal from the bench in January 2011, finding that she had indeed received a sufficiently fair trial, regardless of Conahan's adverse testimony.