WASHINGTON -- A federal judge in Texas who was convicted of lying about his sexual abuse of two assistants cannot continue to receive his full salary for the rest of his life, the chief of a disciplinary panel of judges ruled Wednesday. The panel urged quick impeachment proceedings against Samuel Kent of Galveston, Texas, who has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison for lying to authorities about his assaults on the two women. The Judicial Council of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a letter sent Wednesday to the Judicial Conference, a policy-making panel of the appellate court, that Kent has acknowledged behavior that constitutes grounds for impeachment. At his sentencing earlier this month, the two women described nightmarish working conditions when Kent groped and molested them in his chambers. Kent pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for lying about the incidents to federal investigators. He was sentenced to 33 months in prison, fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $6,550 in restitution to the secretary and case manager whose complaints resulted in the first sex-abuse case against a sitting federal judge. Kent was ordered to surrender to authorities June 15 for transfer to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and must serve three years' probation once his sentence is completed. He also was ordered to participate in an alcohol-abuse program while in prison. Kent, 59, asked that he be allowed to retire on disability, citing depression. Because federal judges serve for life, he could collect his $169,300 annual salary until he died. Chief Justice Edith Jones, the head of the Judicial Council, denied that request in a separate letter to Kent's attorney, Dick DeGuerin. In the letter, Jones said alcohol abuse seems to have been a "catalyst" of his abuse of two female employees. She acknowledged that he had been taking psychotropic drugs to control his depression, but said he also handled a high volume of cases until he was criminally indicted. "Because Judge Kent's present disability is interrelated with the consequences of criminal prosecution culminating in the guilty plea, federal law does not permit him to retire on disability," Jones said. DeGuerin was out of the country and not immediately available to comment, an assistant at his firm said. The House Judiciary Committee has begun an investigation of whether to impeach Kent, the only way to remove a federal judge from the bench.
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