Miscellaneous

Blue Moon over Texas

By Anne Skove, Esq.

It's something that happens once in a blue moon, or an average of once every 5 years: a federal judge is charged with a federal crime.

A court employee stated that she was assaulted by U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent. He has been charged with abusive sexual contact and attempted aggravated sexual abuse.

The same employee filed an earlier complaint, for which the judge received a written reprimand from the judicial council of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The council, though, was not unanimous in deciding whether the alleged conduct occurred.

After reports of that complaint and the subsequent reprimand were published in the Houston Chronicle (the employee came forward -- the complaint itself was kept confidential), the House Committee on the Judiciary took it to the next level. An FBI investigation ensued, and the Public Integrity Section (thank goodness they don't use an acronym) of the DOJ prosecuted.

See U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent Indicted in Sex Case, Lise Olsen, Mary Flood, and Roma Khanna, Houston Chronicle (August 28, 2008), and one reaction in Judging the Judges Who Judged Kent, Rick Casey, Houston Chronicle (August 28, 2008).

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on August 29, 2008 (boomark / email).