HARRISBURG — A businessman who won a $3.5 million defamation award against a Pennsylvania newspaper ridicules the paper's claim that the judgment was fixed.

The Citizens' Voice of Wilkes-Barre has asked the state Supreme Court to overturn the award granted by Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella in 2006. Ciavarella and another judge recently pleaded guilty to fraud charges in an unrelated case dealing with $2.6 million in kickbacks they got for sending juveniles to detention centers in Luzerne and Butler counties.

The Citizens' Voice claims in court papers the defamation award may have been fixed by Ciavarella.

In a response filed today with the high court, the lawyer for plaintiff Thomas Joseph says the paper has engaged in "wild speculation" unsupported by a "scintilla of fact." He asks the Supreme Court to toss the newspaper's petition.