U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent (shown in February) is about to begin a 33-month prison sentence.

Galveston's Judge Kent to quit next year

Prison-bound jurist tells Obama he will quit June 1, 2010

STEWART POWELL

Houston Chronicle

June 2, 2009, 8:36PM

WASHINGTON — Prison- bound U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Kent told President Barack Obama on Tuesday he fully intends to keep his $174,000-a-year post for another year — a notice that further fueled the angst of members of Congress who vowed a fast-track impeachment

“I hereby resign from my position as United States District Judge for the Southern District of Texas effective June 1, 2010,” Kent wrote the president, putting the effective date in italics. Until that date — or his impeachment — he will continue to draw a salary from taxpayers.

Kent’s letter, however, only served to galvanize House action, with Rep. Lamar Smith of San Antonio, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, saying: “Ensuring that a corrupt judge does not receive another penny of taxpayer dollars is one of the most important jobs for this Congress and a priority for the Judiciary Committee.”

Kent, convicted of obstruction of justice and set to begin a 33-month sentence in coming weeks, submitted the one-line letter on the eve of impeachment proceedings by the House Judiciary Committee. Those proceedings will still start today.

The White House had no immediate comment.

Dick DeGuerin, Kent’s Houston-based attorney, said Kent delayed the date of his resignation because it will take that long anyway for the House and Senate to complete impeachment.

“There’s no reason for going forward, now that Kent has notified the president of his unconditional resignation,” DeGuerin told the Houston Chronicle.

DeGuerin accused lawmakers of pressing ahead “for the publicity value” and to “fight for a microphone.”

Impeachment is “going to be brutal, it’s going to be ugly and it’s going to be nasty,” DeGuerin said. Lawmakers “are taking advantage of a man who has been totally destroyed and has stepped up and accepted his punishment.”

Plea deal didn’t specify

Kent was sentenced on May 11 after pleading guilty in February to obstruction of justice for lying to a judicial inquiry looking into allegations that he had repeatedly sexually harassed and assaulted a court employee.

The 59-year-old jurist admitted in the plea deal that he had non-consensual sexual contact with two female court employees between 2003 and 2007. But the 12-page plea agreement did not specify that Kent would resign or relinquish his salary.

Federal judges can be removed from the bench only after impeachment — a process that requires the House to file charges and the Senate to convict.

Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, said Congress will impeach Kent “well before the end of that year because he’s taking up a position on the bench and we need a judge sitting on that bench.”

Two victims to testify

Sen. John Cornyn, R-San Antonio, a former Texas attorney general and state Supreme Court judge, said the judge “does not deserve another paycheck from American taxpayers.”

Kent “betrayed the public trust, broke the law and trashed the oath that he swore to uphold,” said Cornyn.

Witnesses before the House Judiciary Committee hearing will include two federal court employees whom Kent has admitted to molesting — court case manager Cathy McBroom and legal secretary Donna Wilkerson.

McBroom’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, said Kent “could have gone quietly with a resignation effective immediately without these women having to once again testify to the world as to what he did.”

Added Wilkerson’s lawyer, Terry Yates: “I think if he resigns in a year, he’ll be already impeached and convicted in the Senate by then.”