Breaking: Judge Kent Pleads Guilty, Retires from the Bench
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent lost a motion to have his obstruction of justice charge dropped or moved to a different trial.
Today, he copped a plea and announced his intent to retire. According to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog:
The jurist pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice today and retired from the bench, avoiding a trial on several charges that he sexually abused two female employees….“Judge Kent believes that this settlement is in the best interest of all involved,” his attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said after this morning’s hearing. “A trial would have been long, embarrassing and difficult for all involved.”
Long and difficult? Sounds about right.
Update: Read more about Judge Kent’s fate over here.
Breaking News: Judge Kent Cops Plea, Resigns [WSJ Law Blog]
Judge Kent accepts plea deal and retires from bench [Houston Chronicle]
(16) Comments
Comments
God is dead and we have killed him.
This was breaking news when the WSJ Law blog posted it over an hour ago.
2: Mystal is back. Don't expect the quality of this site to continue at the level we enjoyed last week. That said, people complaining about MysTTTal will drive up traffic.
"Today, he copped a plea"
That's not all he copped.
Heeeeeeeeeeee...Youuuuuu siiiick monkeeeeeeeey!
BigLarry here saying Judge Kent should seek to overturn his guilty plea - it was not knowing and intelligent and therefore was in violation of his constitutional rights.
The question we should be asking is whether his plea deal was to a felony or misdemeanor. If it was a felony he will not be allowed retirement benefits. I believe he should not be allowed retirement benefits but these creeps stick together. If you think the police and courts are really good and honest go to www.LawReport.org. There are hundreds and hundreds of examples of unbridled corruption and criminal acts committed by the "Good Guys."
gross
7, given that the Houston Chron article said he was eligible for up to 20 years, it's a felony. If a charge can carry a sentence of more than one year, it is a felony (misdemeanors can be up to one year).
The LAW has a new sentencing gimmick that allows them to keep a person in jail for more than a year on misdemeanors. It is called box carring. That is simply running sentences consecutively like a train. They are abusing it more and more to keep offenders in jail as long as possible. Example - get a DUI: one year for DUI, 6 mths for open container = 18 mths.
According to a WSJ article (not the law blog) posted an hour and a half before ATL's "breaking" news it was felony obstruction.
10, the running of sentences consecutively, instead of concurrently, is not new (although I don't practice crim law, there may be a trend of doing so more often now). The article stated that he was copping to a single charge, so there was no other sentence to run consecutively, ergo a felony.
Who knew that the man who wrote the "'letric lights" and "crayon" opinions had a dark side?
Goodbye to a "varmint of unsavory kind"!
Let's not forget the 3 years in the joint that the US Attorney's Office is seeking at sentencing on the obstruction charge. (He could do up to 20.)
Is it not a tad more serious when a person we entrust to uphold justice like, say a FEDERAL JUDGE obstructs justice compared to a common criminal (like a US Senator)?
They should transport him to prison via giant Texas jackrabbit.