Samuel B. Kent

Samuel B. Kent (born June 22, 1949, Denver, Colorado) is a former U.S District Court judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, who served in the single-judge Galveston Division covering Brazoria, Chambers, Galveston, and Matagorda Counties. He was nominated by President 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 for lying to investigators about sexually abusing two female employees. Dick DeGuerin, Kent's attorney, said the judge would retire from the bench because of a disability, rather than resign, thereby enabling Kent to keep receiving his $169,300 annual salary for life. That did not satisfy the leaders of the House Judiciary Committee, Representatives John Conyers Jr., (D-Mich.) and Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), who demanded that Kent resign immediately or face impeachment.

Judge Kent submitted his resignation on June 2, 2009, with the proviso that it would not take effect for a full year. This angered the membership of the House Judiciary Committee, which voted unanimously to send four Articles of Impeachment to the full House of Representatives on June 10, 2009. The articles were passed on June 19, 2009, making Judge Kent the first federal fudge to be impeached since Walter L. Nixon, Jr. in 1989. Kent thereafter submitted a new letter of resignation to the Senate on June 25, 2009, taking effect on June 30, 2009. On June 30, President Barack Obama accepted his resignation. On July 20, the House of Representatives passed a resolution asking the Senate to end former Judge Kent's trial. Two days later, the Senate agreed to the resolution.