A federal judge in Texas is facing new charges related to a second alleged incident of sexual abuse.
District Judge Samuel Kent pleaded not guilty in Houston today to federal charges that he sexually abused a female employee and lied to investigators about it, the Houston Chronicle reports.
Kent is accused of forcing an unnamed female employee, in the words of the Chronicle, sourcing the indictment, “to repeatedly ‘engage in a sexual act,’ including oral sex and using his hands to ‘penetrate or attempt to penetrate’ her”, during 2004.
There’s also an alleged coverup. The paper reports that, according to the indictment, Kent falsely told a special investigative committee that “the extent of his unwanted sexual contact with Person B was one kiss and that when told by Person B his advances were unwelcome no further contact occurred.”
Kent is already the first ever federal judge to be charged with a federal sex crime. He faces a trial this month on charges that he allegedly abused his former case manager — a relationship that the married justice’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, has described as “enthusiastically consensual.”
According to the Chronicle, that woman…
…alleged that the judge physically touched her under her clothing twice and often made obscene suggestions during the six years she worked for him. He is charged with abusing McBroom in 2003 and 2007 by fondling her breast and other body parts and by trying to force her head toward his groin.
Kent was the only federal judge in Galveston, Texas, when all the incidents are alleged to have occurred. He has since been transferred to Houston, where he remains on the federal bench.
Another interesting note: DeGuerin, Kemp’s lawyer, is a heavy hitter in Texas legal circles who has also represented Tom DeLay — the former Majority Leader who was indicted in 2005 on charges that he conspired to break Texas election laws — and Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh.
