HOUSTON (AP) _ When U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent enters a courtroom Monday, he’ll make judicial history, but not the kind he’ll want to remember.
Kent will join the handful of U.S. federal judges who have gone on trial as a defendant, and the first to be tried for an alleged sex crime.
The 59-year-old Kent is accused of fondling two female court employees as he tried to force himself on the women and have them perform sex acts.
Jury selection in his trial was set to start Monday in a federal courtroom in Houston. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The appointee of President George H.W. Bush also would likely face impeachment by Congress.
Kent has pleaded innocent to the six charges he faces, five related to federal sex crimes and one for obstructing justice, in which he is accused of lying to an investigative committee.
The last federal judge indicted was Robert F. Collins. He was indicted in February 1991 for allegedly scheming with a New Orleans businessman to split a drug smuggler’s $100,000 payoff. He was convicted and sentenced later that year to nearly seven years in prison.
Four judges were indicted in the 1980s and one in the 1970s.