Legal News

Judge Kent Doffs Robe for Good . . . In 2010

By Ashby Jones

Texas federal judge Samuel Kent officially announced his resignation on Tuesday. But the news seems to have mostly angered members of the House Judiciary Committee, who are slated to begin impeachment hearings on Kent today.

HJC members were riled up because Kent’s resignation does not take effect immediately, but on June 1, 2010, meaning he’ll be able to keep his $174,000 salary for another year. Click here for the Houston Chron story.

Kent was sentenced to 33 months in prison 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. His conviction and sentencing didn’t automatically do anything to his seat on the bench, however. Only impeachment can strip the robes from a federal judge, who are guaranteed life tenure under Article III of the Constitution. Impeachment requires the House to file charges and the Senate to convict.

"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,” said Rep. Lamar Smith of San Antonio, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, in explaining why impeachment proceedings will carry on despite Kent’s resignation announcement.

Dick DeGuerin, Kent’s lawyer, 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 or DeGeurin? Let’s drop a strange piece of knowledge on you now. Dick DeGuerin — the above-mentioned Houston attorney — has a brother named Mike, also a Houston attorney. Thing is, Mike spells his last name DeGeurin. Seriously. So what’s up with this? According to this Chronicle story, Dick had his name changed to “ue” rather than “eu” so it would be more like the French word for war. Wow.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 03, 2009 (boomark / email).