Pearls of Wisdom and Foolish Mutterings

Are we being punked or what?

Samuel B. Kent served as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in the single-judge Galveston Division covering Brazoria, Chambers, Galveston, and Matagorda Counties from 1990 to 2009. He was nominated by George H.W. Bush on August 3, 1990, to a seat vacated by Hugh Gibson, confirmed by the United States Senate on September 28, 1990, and received his commission on October 1, 1990.

On May 11, 2009, Judge Kent was sentenced to 33 months in prison in a sex abuse case for lying to investigators about sexually abusing two female employees. Dick DeGuerin. Kent's attorney, said the judge was retiring from the bench because of a disability—which would allow him to keep receiving his $169,300-a-year salary. Retired federal judges collect their full salaries for the remainder of their lives; judges who resign get nothing. That did not satisfy the leaders of the House Judiciary Committee, Reps. John Conyers Jr., (D-Mich.) and Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), who demanded that Kent resign immediately or face possible impeachment.

Judge Kent submitted his resignation on June 2, 2009, that will take effect on June 1, 2010. He will receive his full salary of $169K for the next year.

Well, whoop-ti-freakin'-doo. How nice for him. Can someone please explain this to me? So, when does he do his 33 months of jail time? Is he going to be in jail for the next year while he is collecting his salary? Is this not the most ridiculous story you've ever heard?

If he was sentenced to 33 months of jail time, shouldn't that automatically disqualify him as a federal judge? And that's not even taking into consideration the fact that he apparently sexually assaulted two female employees. Seriously. WTF??

What kind of crap is that? He resigns so he won't be impeached, but makes his official resignation date a year in the future and that's acceptable? Who decides that? Because I think whoever approved that shit should be impeached too.

Would any normal person even have the balls to suggest something like that? No, of course not. Only someone who knows the law well enough to circumvent it would come up with something so ... what's the word I'm grasping for here?... ludicrous? insane? laughable?

I guess the only people who really have to pay for their crimes are the regular Joes. If you're a politician or a celebrity, the rules can be twisted into whatever kind of maze you can come up with. Man! This just pisses me off.

UPDATE: As it turns out, he will be serving time while he is still receiving pay for being a federal judge for the next 12 months. He reports to prison on June 16 to begin serving his sentence. And the plea bargain he got was a really sweet deal. He plead guilty to the 6th count of the indictment - the one with the least severe consequences, that of lying to a congressional committee. In exchange for his guilty plea to that count, the other five counts in the indictment - of aggravated sexual abuse - were all dismissed. He got a pretty sweet deal, if you ask me.