President Obama accepted the resignation yesterday of Federal District Court Judge who is serving a prison sentence for obstruction of justice after he was charged with sexual harassment of two member of his staff. The sexual harassment charges were dismissed in exchange for his plea to the obstruction of justice charge.

He initially said he would resign immediately after the conviction but then changed his mind and dated the resignation for June 1, 2010. Since Federal judges can only be removed from office by resignation or impeachment, this would have allowed him to collect his $174,000 annual salary for another year. President Obama did not accept the resignation dated June 2010 but he accepted the immediate resignation which came at the same time that Kent received notice that he was going to be tried before the Senate.

In response to his delayed resignation, The House of Representatives impeached him on four count–two of harassing his staff and one each of lying to judicial investigators and to the Justice Department. He is currently awaiting trial on the impeachment charges in the Senate.

A Congressional committee recommended Wednesday the impeachment of U. S. District Judge Samuel Kent who was convicted of obstruction of justice for lying to a judicial investigating committee and the FBI which were investigating sexual abuse complaints against him by his secretary and case manager.

According to testimony by staff members he would grope them, often while drunk. As part of a plea bargain he was sentenced to 33 months on the obstruction of justice charge and the sex related charges were dismissed. At his sentencing a statement by his case manager was read in which she said,

“After forcing himself upon me and asking me to do unspeakable things, he told me that pleasuring him was something I owed him. That was it for me.”

Kent has turned in a resignation effective June 2010, Thus unless he is impeached he will continue to get his full salary for the next year while he is in prison. The House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to impeach him. Assuming that the House votes for impeachment and the Senate convicts him his salary will be terminated immediately.

While he was facing twenty years in prison, U. S. District Judge for the Southern District of Texas Samuel Kent was sentenced to 33 months in prison for obstruction of justice according to an article in TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime.

He lied to a judicial investigating committee and to the FBI investigating complaints that he sexually abused female staff members. In exchange for his guilty plea to one count of obstruction of justice five counts of sexual misconduct were dismissed.

The plea bargain and the sentence sure seem mighty light for one who has admitted to sexual misconduct with two employees. I wonder what his sentence would be if he was not a judge. I’m sure, at a minimum one of the plea conditions would have forced him to resign his judgeship, thus forfeiting his pension. I also suspect that he would have been forced to plead guilty to at least one offense involving sexual misconduct and that he would have gotten more time.

His conduct is pretty horrendous. The primary complainant, Cathy McBroom said in a sentencing statement:

“After forcing himself upon me and asking me to do unspeakable things, he told me that pleasuring him was something I owed him. That was it for me.”

She said he was often drunk and he would grope her. Though she is in therapy she says there are still parts of her dealing with Kent that she is unable to talk about and that it caused severe problems in her marriage. Some of his early statements claimed that the conduct was consensual. I’m sure that made the victims and their husbands real happy.

Kent continues to draw his salary as a judge. He will continue to get paid unless he either resigns or is impeached. He has applied for early retirement claiming a disability. Thus it becomes a race whether he is impeached first or whether his disability request is granted first. Members of the House Judiciary Committee are immediately beginning to work on his impeachment. Committee Chair John Conyers of Michigan and Lamar Smith the ranking Republican on the committee are expected to file a resolution beginning the impeachment process today.