Controversy over Kent impeachment hearing

The two women with whom retired U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent admitted to having nonconsensual sexual contact as part of his plea deal testified before the House Judiciary Committee Task Force on Impeachment in Washington, D.C., today about Kent's manipulative and abusive behavior as the lone judge at the federal courthouse in Galveston. But Kent's lawyer Dick DeGuerin says the hearing didn't need to happen. "All they needed to do was enter in a resolution calling for his impeachment based on his plea of guilty to a felony for obstruction of justice. All of the sexual allegations against him were dismissed. In other words, there was no reason for that hearing other than to allow for those women to complain publicly again and to allow the politicians to take advantage of Sam Kent's downfall and claim that they had some role in the whole business. It's kind of like a rooster claiming responsibility for the sunrise." Rusty Hardin, McBroom's lawyer, says he is offended by DeGuerin's comments suggesting Kent is the victim. Hardin says Kent "might have just as well got in a plane and flew up here [to D.C.] and spit in their faces and flown back to Houston. . . . I've just about had it with Dick continuing to blame the victims on behalf of a man who doesn't have the decency to resign and go quietly." See Texas Lawyer's story here.