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Federal Judge Resigns Again, This Time Effective Tuesday
House of Representatives will decide what further action is necessary in the wake of Kent's new resignation letter
Texas Lawyer
June 29, 2009
U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent of the Southern District of Texas, who is currently serving a 33-month prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, now plans to resign on Tuesday, instead of June 1, 2010.
On Wednesday, Kent gave a new resignation letter to Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance W. Gainer when Gainer served a summons on Kent in prison.
On June 19, the U.S. House voted to impeach Kent, and on Wednesday, several House members delivered Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, which eventually would have held a trial on Kent's impeachment.
The summons was related to the Senate investigation into the case against Kent. Because of the new resignation letter, Kent's impeachment is up in the air. In a written statement, two House members who managed Kent's impeachment in the House -- U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. -- said that after Kent's new resignation is accepted by the president, the House will decide what further action is necessary.
Congress was moving quickly to impeach Kent because he had earlier submitted a resignation letter effective June 1, 2010, which meant he would continue to receive his $174,000 judicial salary while in prison.
Goodlatte wrote that he is pleased Kent "finally decided to take himself off of the taxpayers' payroll." U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, D-Wis., wrote in another statement that he hopes the impeachment process "reminds other judges that they are not above the laws they took an oath to uphold."
Kent's criminal-defense attorney, Dick DeGuerin, a partner in DeGuerin & Dickson in Houston, could not be reached for immediate comment because he was in court for a bail hearing for another client, R. Allen Stanford, the recently indicted chairman of Stanford Financial Group.
Hayden Head, chief judge of the Southern District, says he was made aware of Kent's new resignation letter. Head says he will meet with other judges in the district after Tuesday "about matters related to court management."
This article first appeared on Texas Lawyer's Tex Parte blog.
