U.S. House learns of Samuel Kent's 'judicial reign of terror'

Samuel Kent, the Federal District Judge of Galveston, Texas, was sentenced on May 11, 2009 to 33 months in prison for lying about sexually harassing two female employees. He had been appointed to office by George H. W. Bush in 1990.
 

STEWART M. POWELL, -  Houston Chronicle  |  June 3, 2009

WASHINGTON — In some of the most graphic public testimony they have offered — and in the halls of Congress where they hope to see their former boss impeached — two federal employees Wednesday recounted years of courthouse assaults and unwanted sexual encounters at the hands of a United States judge.
 

For years, Cathy McBroom and Donna Wilkerson stayed silent as an often intoxicated U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent cornered them to inflict unwanted kissing, groping and occasionally furtive sexual touching, they said.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee sat glued to vivid, sometimes emotional testimony from the two victims, who eventually braved potential risks to their jobs and reputations to come forward with the truth in Texas and now before Congress.

On Wednesday, Congress started fast-track impeachment proceedings against Kent, galvanized by his bid to keep a $174,000 annual paycheck in prison and his predatory behavior toward his female employees.

“A judicial reign of terror,” said Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., describing Kent’s post as the lone federal judge in Galveston, where he served for 18 years.

“I knew there would continue to be victims if no one did anything about it,” McBroom told the panel. “That thought nagged at me.”

McBroom, 50, served as Kent’s case manager, and Wilkerson, 45, worked as his legal secretary.

The two women gave statements at Kent’s sentencing in May, but this was their first opportunity to describe at length in sworn testimony the experiences that led to their complaints and Kent’s eventual downfall.

Kent was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison May 11 after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice for lying to a judicial inquiry panel about his sexual misconduct.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, the only woman on the 12-member impeachment panel, personally apologized to McBroom and Wilkerson on behalf of the federal government.

“I am compelled to apologize for the treatment that you received,” said Jackson Lee, a longtime advocate of civil rights for minorities and women. “Hopefully you will accept (the apology) knowing that your federal government and the judiciary overall is one that you can be proud of.”

Neither Kent nor his lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, took part in the proceedings. Kent’s written statement blamed his behavior on alcoholism, an unspecified personality flaw and the sense of loss he suffered during and after the death of his first wife from brain cancer.

“Perhaps I was attempting to meet an unfilled need for affection,” Kent wrote.

McBroom submitted four pages of single-spaced testimony; Wilkerson submitted nine pages of double-spaced testimony.

The two women, recounting the difficulties of discussing the episodes with their husbands and children, reserved some of the most vivid details of Kent’s assaults for their prepared testimony rather than describing it completely in person.

“All I can say is with each step forward as painful as it is and as painful as the past has been, I am moving closer and closer to some sunshine in my days,” Wilkerson said.

Members of the panel, including Reps.Charles Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, and Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, vowed to develop and approve at least one article of impeachment within a matter of weeks to set the stage for a Senate trial and Kent’s removal from office before the August congressional recess.

Congress alone has authority to impeach and remove a federal judge from the bench, under the U.S. Constitution.

“This is insulting,” Gohmert declared. “The message needs to go out that you don’t play games with this Congress — otherwise we’re taking it to the wall.”