Disgraced U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Kent has notified President Barack Obama of his “unconditional resignation” from the federal bench effective next June 1, his lawyer, Dick DeGuerin told the Houston Chronicle today.
By STEWART POWELL
Disgraced U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Kent has notified President Barack Obama of his “unconditional resignation” from the federal bench effective next June 1, his lawyer, Dick DeGuerin told the Houston Chronicle today.
Kent sent his letter to the president on the eve of formal impeachment proceedings by the House Judiciary Committee, DeGuerin said.
DeGuerin said Kent delayed stepping down from the bench for a year because it would take the House and the Senate at least that long to complete impeachment proceedings. “If they want to continue with the impeachment hearings, you’ll know that they’re doing it just for the publicity value,” DeGuerin said. “It’s going to be brutal, it’s going to be ugly and it’s going to be nasty and there’s no reason to do it.”
A 12-member task force from the House Judiciary Committee, including Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, Charles Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, and Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, scheduled testimony on Wednesday from two of Kent’s victims – Cathy McBroom and Donna Wilkerson.
Lawmakers have expressed frustration with Kent’s rejection of requests to step down from the bench.
DeGuerin said Kent planned to continue receiving his $174,000-a-year federal judicial salary and accompanying health benefits until his resignation takes effect.
Federal judges can only be removed from the bench by Congress following impeachment proceedings.
DeGuerin said that lawmakers’ mounting impeachment proceedings were “taking advantage of a man who has been totally destroyed.”
Kent was sentenced on May 11 to 33 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in February to obstruction of justice for lying to a judicial inquiry looking into allegations that he sexually harassed a court employee.
Kent, 59, admitted in a plea deal to having nonconsensual sexual contact with two female employees between 2003 and 2007.
Kent’s 12-page plea deal signed Feb. 23 made no mention of any agreement to resign his judicial post or to relinquish his annual federal salary upon sentencing or imprisonment.
Kent is scheduled to report to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons at a date that has not yet been specified, his lawyer said.
DeGuerin said federal authorities usually give sentenced individuals such as Kent between 10 days and two weeks notice of a date to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons. DeGuerin said Kent has not yet received that notice.
