Legal Commentary

Judge Kent cops a plea

By Tom Kirkendall

As most local lawyers expected, U.S. District Judge Sam Kent entered into a plea bargain on the courthouse steps today that derailed what would have been an extremely ugly trial on sexual abuse and obstruction of justice charges and ended his 18 year career as a federal judge. Here is the factual basis for the plea deal and also the plea agreement. Earlier posts on the case against Judge Kent are here.

As noted, Judge Kent's plea deal was not a surprise, although the courthouse steps nature of it was. It looks as if defense attorney Dick DeGuerin -- one of Houston's best criminal defense attorneys for this type of case -- pushed the case to the brink in an attempt to gain the best possible deal, which it appears he did.

In the factual basis for the plea, Judge Kent admitted only to lying to the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council about unwanted sexual advances that he made toward a subordinate. That leaves out any admissions regarding the serious sexual abuse charges that the prosecution dismissed as a part of the plea deal. Those non-admissions have to be considered a victory for the defense in a case such as this.

However, that victory probably won't prevent Judge Kent from being sentenced to do some serious prison time. The prosecution agreed only not to recommend any more than a three-year sentence in regard to the maximum 20-year sentence that Judge Kent could receive on the obstruction charge, and visiting U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson has a reputation of handing down relatively harsh sentences. I'm no expert on sentencing, but my initial sense is that Judge Kent is looking at between a 3-5 year sentence.

That's probably lighter than the sentence that Judge Kent would have assessed to a defendant convicted of the same charge in a similar case in his court.

But it's not going to be a picnic, either.

Full post as published by Houston's Clear Thinkers on February 24, 2009 (boomark / email).