SCRANTON — A former Pennsylvania judge acknowledged receiving a “finder’s fee” in connection with the construction of two privately owned juvenile detention facilities, one of them in Butler County, but denied extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the facilities’ co-owner.

Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella testified in his public corruption trial today about prosecution claims that he and another judge took illegal kickbacks from the builder of the facilities and extorted hundreds of thousands from the owner of the buildings.

Ciavarella said the builder, Robert Mericle, told him the payment was legal and the judge took him at his word.

Prosecutors allege that Ciavarella and former Judge Michael Conahan took more than $2 million in illegal kickbacks from Mericle, the builder of the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centers, and extorted more than $725,000 from Robert Powell, the facilities’ co-owner.

Western PA Child Care is in Allegheny Township.