HARRISBURG -- Pittsburgh businessman Greg Zappala is no longer a defendant in two civil suits filed by the families of hundreds of children who say they were wrongly incarcerated in detention facilities he owned.

Plaintiffs' attorneys on Thursday dropped him from the suits because another defendant, Robert Powell, testified that Mr. Zappala didn't know about an illegal kickback scheme at the center of their claims.

Mr. Powell and Mr. Zappala used to co-own the detention centers -- PA Child Care in Luzerne County and Western PA Child Care in Allegheny Township, Butler County. Mr. Powell sold his interest to Mr. Zappala last year.

Mr. Powell pleaded guilty to paying two Luzerne County judges to facilitate the development of the detention centers and to sentence kids to them. Counties paid the centers based on the number of children sent to them.

Prosecutors say the judges -- Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan -- took $2.6 million from Mr. Powell and Mericle Construction, which built the facilities.

The judges, who have since stepped down, often sentenced children who were not represented by attorneys to months of incarceration for crimes such as shoplifting, fighting at school and stealing change from unlocked cars.

Mr. Powell recently pleaded guilty to failing to report a crime and being an accessory to tax evasion for his role.

"Based on the testimony of Mr. Powell, an admitted felon, it was suggested that Mr. Zappala was unaware of his partner's illegal activity," said David S. Senoff, an attorney for about 300 plaintiffs in one of the civil cases. "As a result we have decided at this time to release Mr. Zappala from the case. However, we have preserved our right to bring him back into the case should evidence require doing so."

Barry H. Dyller, a Wilkes-Barre attorney handling a class action case filed by the Juvenile Law Center of Philadelphia, confirmed his clients also are no longer suing Mr. Zappala.

"We made a decision to follow the evidence, and the evidence we have in respect to him" shows no culpability, Mr. Dyller said.

While Mr. Zappala is no longer named individually, his detention facilities remain listed as corporate defendants.

Dan Fee, spokesman for Mr. Zappala, said it was "completely appropriate" to dismiss his client as a defendant.

"We never deviated from our original position that Mr. Zappala did not know and had no reason to know of the alleged activities," spokesman Dan Fee said in a written statement.

Mr. Zappala is the brother of Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. and son of former state Supreme Court justice Stephen A. Zappala Sr.

Other defendants in the civil suits include the two former judges, their wives, Mr. Powell, Mericle construction owner Robert Mericle and Sandra Brulo, Luzerne County's former chief juvenile probation officer.