Judge will learn his fate today (Samuel Kent)

Houston Chronicle 5/11/09
Samuel Kent, who wielded power as a federal judge for 18 years, is very likely to be sentenced to prison today for obstructing justice.
Federal jurist Kent likely headed to prison for trying to hinder inquiry into sex offenses

Kent, 59, pleaded guilty in February to obstruction of justice for lying to a judicial committee investigating an allegation he sexually harassed an employee. The longtime Galveston judge also acknowledged that he’d had nonconsensual sexual contact with two female employees between 2003 and 2007.

(snip)

The obstruction charge carries a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison. Prosecutors requested that the man appointed to the bench by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 be sentenced to three years in prison, but Vinson is not bound by that recommendation.

Kent, like other federal trial judges, was appointed for life and is still drawing his salary from the government, though he is no longer hearing cases. His salary, with a recent cost of living increase, is $174,000 a year. In the eleven weeks since he pleaded guilty to obstructing justice, Kent has been paid about $36,000. He will keep being paid unless he resigns or is impeached.

Rather than resigning, he has asked Judge Edith Jones, chief judge of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, to grant him the early retirement so he can keep getting his pay for life. Jones would not comment for this story on Kent’s request or whether the judicial council has met or will meet on Kent’s case.

KHOU.com 5/11/09

U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent was sentenced to 33 months Monday. He was also fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $6,550 in restitution to the two women whose complaints resulted in the first sex abuse case against a sitting federal judge. Kent could have received up to 20 years in prison after admitting to obstruction of justice, but prosecutors said they wouldn’t seek more than three years under a plea agreement. “Your wrongful conduct is a huge black X ... a stain on the judicial system itself, a matter of concern in the federal courts,” U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson said as he imposed the sentence. Vinson is a visiting senior judge called in from Pensacola, Fla.

(snip)
Federal judges must be at least 65 before they can retire and reaching that age allows them to still collect their full salaries for the remainder of their lives.

Kent, who was paid $169,300 a year, is 59. The only way a younger judge could retire and still collect his salary would be to claim a disability, either mental or physical. A federal judge who resigns gets nothing.

AAS 5/03/09
Keller discloses $2.4 million in property

The top judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has reported more than $2.4 million in previously undisclosed income and real estate holdings.

Presiding Judge Sharon Keller listed the income and assets in an amended report on her personal finances filed last week with the Texas Ethics Commission.

Keller said she had omitted the information from previous disclosures because her father, Dallas landowner and restaurateur Jack Keller, hadn't told her of them, The Dallas Morning News reported in Saturday's editions.

Houston Chronicle 5/11/09
Kent's punishment brings vindication to victim
Court coordinator says she overcame fears to pursue sexual misconduct case against judge

The odds favored her silence.

Cathy McBroom, a twice-married federal court case manager with a high school degree versus a formidable federal judge, a towering mercurial man who ruled like a king over Galveston’s lone U.S. court.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent seemed untouchable, appointed by a U.S. president, approved by Congress to serve for a lifetime. His sentencing Monday — two years after McBroom first accused him of attempting to sexually assault her — brought both vindication and sorrow.

"I’m very satisfied," said McBroom, who gave her first interview to the Houston Chronicle. Kent "was treated like any other defendant." Being allowed to deliver her victim statement publicly at a federal court hearing Monday made McBroom feel "like a big weight has been lifted," she said.

"I did the right thing and didn’t have to lose my job," McBroom said. Maybe it will give other women the opportunity to come forward … (but) I was not out for vengeance. For someone like the judge who had a brilliant mind, it’s a horrible thing."

Houston Chronicle 5/12/09
Kent sentenced to 33 months behind bars
Congressional impeachment proceedings likely to begin today

Congressional impeachment proceedings will likely begin today against U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent, who was sentenced to 33 months in prison Monday for lying to those investigating him for sexual misconduct.

"Unless Judge Samuel Kent immediately resigns, we intend to introduce a resolution jointly (Tuesday) to commence an inquiry into whether grounds exist to impeach him and remove him from office," said a joint statement issued by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, the committee’s ranking Republican member.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., a former chairman of the panel, plans to file papers for proposed impeachment today, spokeswoman Wendy Riemann said.

Kent, 59, retired shortly after pleading guilty in February and is positioned to continue drawing his $174,000 annual paycheck, despite his conviction, unless he resigns or is removed from the bench. His lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, said the impeachment talk is premature.