HOUSTON — U.S. House Judiciary Committee members, worried a federal judge could still receive his full salary even after pleading guilty this week in a sex crimes case, are looking at possible impeachment proceedings against the convicted jurist.
U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent pleaded guilty Monday to lying to investigators about sexually abusing his secretary in exchange for prosecutors dropping five sex-crime charges alleging he groped the secretary and his former case manager. Kent, the first federal judge charged with a sex crime, admitted the sexual contact was against the women's will.
After the guilty plea, Kent's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, announced the judge was retiring, effective immediately.
But federal judges have to retire at 65 to still collect their full salaries. Kent, who makes $169,300, 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.
Committee member James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said he is worried Kent will seek to retire because of a disability.
"If Judge Kent is allowed to retire on disability, that, I think, flies directly in the face of inspiring confidence in the federal court system," said Sensenbrenner, who headed the committee from 2001 to 2007. "If the disability is sexually harassing your employees, the outrage in my opinion gets worse."
Sensenbrenner said unless Kent resigns, he plans to introduce a resolution to impeach the judge after he is sentenced on May 11.
"In seeking to retire rather than resign, it appears Judge Kent is trying to take the American taxpayers to the bank on his way out the door," said U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith of San Antonio, the ranking Republican on the judiciary committee. "The American people should not have to pay another penny to a judge whose shameful actions have tarnished the bench."
A gag order in the case prevented DeGuerin from commenting Wednesday.
But when he entered his guilty plea on Monday, Kent and DeGuerin said in court the judge was taking medication for depression and anxiety as well as diabetes and was under the care of both a psychiatrist and a psychologist.
Arthur D. Hellman, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and an expert on federal courts, said Chief Judge Edith Jones of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals would have to approve Kent's request to retire early based on disability.
"It seems to me the chief judge would open herself up to rather severe criticism if she were to (approve this) because it would mean he would still collect his salary," he said. "I think that would create a firestorm if that were to happen because of what he admitted to."
Jones is head of the 5th Circuit's judicial council, which investigated Kent and to which he admitted lying in his guilty plea.
"It's hard to believe (Jones) would have much sympathy to his plight," Hellman said.
The judicial council suspended Kent in September 2007 for four months with pay but didn't detail the allegations against him. It also transferred him from Galveston, where he'd worked since his 1990 appointment, to Houston, 50 miles northwest. After a Justice Department investigation, he was indicted in August and had additional charges filed against him last month.
Joseph St. Amant, a spokesman for the 5th Circuit, said he had no information about Kent's status as a judge and he didn't know if Jones had received a letter DeGuerin has indicated was sent to her on Kent's retirement.
As part of the plea deal, Kent admitted he tried to force his former case manager into unwanted sex acts in August 2003 and March 2007, and did the same with his secretary from 2004 through at least 2005.
Kent's guilty plea to obstruction of justice, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, came as jury selection for his trial was to begin Monday.
Under the plea agreement, prosecutors will seek no more than three years in prison.
