Imagine what it would be like to stand before a judge as the accused in a criminal case knowing the jurist could himself spend the rest of his life behind bars. Imagine what must be going through the judge's mind as he looks out across his courtroom listening to testimony and arguments by able lawyers, and then ponders that the person he is likely to sentence standing before him could someday be his roommate in Club Fed.

Such is the case with U.S. District Judge Sam Kent who now stands indicted on charges he fondled an employee of his Galveston court.

Kent, in a supreme act of hubris and absence of grace has refused to take a leave of absence and will continue to hear cases, according to the chief judge of Texas’ Southern District, Hayden Head Jr. Kent was investigated for months by the Department of Justice until finally a grand jury came to the conclusion in a true bill that he should stand trial on two counts of abusive sexual contact and one count of attempted aggravated sexual abuse.

He is represented by famed Texas criminal defense attorney Dick DeGuerin whose courtroom victories sometimes border on the spectacular. Take the case of New York billionaire Robert Durst who admitted killing and dismembering his neighbor near Galveston’s Silk Stocking District and then dumping the body parts in the nearby bay. DeGuerin defended the cross dressing eccentric with equally famous Texas lawyer Mike Ramsey in the court of State District Judge Susan Criss, now running for an appellate bench. Against all odds, Durst walked.

Kent isn’t DeGuerin’s only high profile client at the moment. The Houston lawyer announced last week that he expects all charges will soon be dropped against former Congressman Tom DeLay who is also under federal indictment.

Kent, who has served on the federal bench for 18 years, will be arraigned before U.S. Circuit Judge Edward C. Prado Wednesday. After the hearing he will be released on his own recognizance. Newspaper reports say he then plans to go back to work in his courtroom in the same building for the rest of the day.

Kent claims his contact with accuser, Cathy McBroom, was consensual. However, she counters that she suffered ongoing sexual harassment over a four year period. It all came to an end, she says, in March, 2007, when the hulking judge allegedly pulled up her blouse and bra but was interrupted and she blew the federal whistle.

After the investigation was made public, McBroom was transferred to work in the garish architecture of the Houston federal courthouse. After a reprimand by the Judicial Council of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Kent too was moved to the same building to hear cases and be under the watchful eye of the district's chief judge.

While Kent is certainly innocent until proven guilty, his position as a U.S. District Judge makes him immune from firing or other obstacles that might be placed in the way of his hearing cases. Enjoying a lifetime appointment to the bench, there is only one way he can be removed from office. Congress could impeach him. Any bets on that happening in a busy election year?


Steven Long is the author of three books and also serves as editor of Texas Horse Talk Magazine, the state’s leading equine journal.

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