HOUSTON — A federal judge who presided for nearly two decades in Galveston, Tex., was sentenced to 33 months in prison on Monday for lying to an investigative committee of judges about whether he had sexually harassed his secretary.
In a deal with prosecutors, the judge, Samuel B. Kent, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in February just as his trial was getting under away. In return, the government agreed to drop five charges that he had repeatedly groped his secretary and his case manager, touching their genitals and breasts against their will. Both women have agreed to be publicly identified.
Judge Kent, 59, admitted in his plea that he had forced himself on the two women, reversing his previous position that they had agreed to his advances. Handing down the sentence, Judge Roger Vinson of United States District Court said Judge Kent’s conduct was “a stain on the judicial system itself.”
Dick DeGuerin, a lawyer for Judge Kent, said the judge suffered from depression, alcoholism, diabetes and bipolar disease. Rather than resign before he serves his time in prison, Judge Kent, appointed to the lifetime post by President George Bush in 1990, has asked to be allowed to claim that he is disabled so he can continue to collect his salary of $169,300 a year, Mr. DeGuerin said.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/us/12judge.html?ref=g...