WILKES-BARRE — A lawsuit against disgraced former judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan was dropped Wednesday as the plaintiffs opted to join class-action litigation against the judges at the heart of the kids-for-cash scandal.

Plaintiff Raul Clark filed the suit in 2009 alleging that during a November 2002 hearing, Ciavarella directed him to count the number of birds perched on a ledge outside of the courtroom. Clark, who was 14 at the time, counted six and Ciavarella in turn sentenced him to six months of detention — one for each bird, the complaint alleges.

The judges are now serving lengthy prison sentences on racketeering charges for accepting bribes in exchange for funneling juveniles into detention centers co-owned by former Drums-based attorney Robert J. Powell.

The motion Harrisburg-based attorney Bridget E. Montgomery filed Wednesday says the plaintiffs have opted into court-approved class settlements in the case and no longer want to pursue the individual case against the former judges.

The settlements already reached in the case include a December 2011 agreement by wealthy developer Robert K. Mericle — who paid the judges $2.1 million and served a year in prison for withholding that information from federal agents — to pay $17.75 million to settle civil rights actions filed by former juvenile offenders who claim they were unjustly imprisoned in the kids-for-cash scandal.

In October 2013, PA Child Care, Western PA Child Care and Mid-Atlantic Youth Services Corp. — the companies Powell co-owned — agreed to pay $2.5 million as a settlement.

Most recently, Powell reached a $4.75 million settlement with the juveniles in March 2015.

Powell was arrested in 2009 for paying $770,000 in kickbacks to Conahan and Ciavarella and served 18 months in prison.

Ciavarella, 66, is serving 28 years at U.S. Penitentiary Atlanta, a medium security prison in Georgia that has a minimum security satellite camp and a detention center.

Conahan, 63, is serving 17½ years at Federal Correctional Institution Coleman, a low-security prison in Sumterville, Florida.

570-821-2058, @cvjimhalpin