House Leaders Push For Impeachment Of Judge Kent

By Evan Weinberger

Law360, New York (May 13, 2009) -- Reps. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the top two members of the House Judiciary Committee, have opened an impeachment inquiry on U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent, who has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for lying to investigators about allegations of sexual abuse.

Conyers, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Smith, the panel's ranking Republican, filed a joint resolution Tuesday launching the inquiry.

Both congressmen made it clear a day earlier that they would seek Judge Kent's impeachment if he did not resign after the sentencing.

“Unless Judge Samuel Kent immediately resigns, we intend to introduce a resolution jointly tomorrow to commence an inquiry into whether grounds exist to impeach him and remove him from office,” they said in a joint statement Monday.

Richard DeGuerin of DeGuerin & Dickson, who represents Judge Kent in the case, could not be reached for comment.

Judge Kent was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty in February to one count of obstruction of justice in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. As part of the agreement, prosecutors agreed not to seek a sentence of more than three years and to dismiss the remaining five sexual abuse counts, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The judge pled not guilty Jan. 7 to the six counts, but he changed his plea on the day jury selection was to begin for his trial. Judge Kent retired on pleading guilty.

The superseding indictment, issued Jan. 6, charged Judge Kent with three counts of abusive sexual contact, one count of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of attempted aggravated abuse. The indictment named two victims, referred to as Person A and Person B.

Persons A and B have since been identified, respectively, as Judge Kent's former case manager, Cathy McBroom, and his former secretary, Donna Wilkerson.

As part of the sentence, Judge Kent will have to pay $3,300 to McBroom and $3,250 to Wilkerson. He also faces three years of probation on release.

Both women have used their names with the press and both were present in the courthouse when Judge Kent entered his guilty plea.

According to the obstruction of justice charge, Judge Kent lied to a special committee investigating the case by claiming that his only "unwanted" contact with Wilkerson was a kiss and that he had not persisted after being told that his advances were unwelcome.

But Judge Kent had "in fact ... engaged in repeated unwanted sexual assaults of Person B, in order to obstruct, influence and impede the Fifth Circuit's investigation into the misconduct complaint filed by Person A,” according to the count.

A trial “would have been long, embarrassing and difficult,” and Judge Kent had notified President Obama and Chief Judge Edith Jones of his retirement, “effective immediately,” when the plea agreement was announced, DeGuerin said.

Judge Jones heads the Special Investigating Committee of the Judicial Council of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which reprimanded Judge Kent and ordered him to go on paid leave for four months in September 2007 in connection with McBroom's allegations of sexual misconduct.

At the time, McBroom's attorney, Rusty Hardin, and women's rights groups cried foul, saying the council had conducted a half-hearted investigation.

McBroom's friends and family have said that Judge Kent repeatedly harassed her for more than four years, leading to a final incident in March 2007 when he lifted up her shirt and touched her against her will.

Judge Kent can have his sentence reduced for participation in a prison substance abuse rehabilitation program, according to the sentencing documents. At the sentencing hearing, DeGuerin told the court that his client had recently been hospitalized for stress-related illnesses and that Judge Kent was an alcoholic, The Associated Press reported.