Bizarre, Courts, Criminal law, Politics

Former Judge Samuel Kent Files Motion Alleging Abuse in Prison

Former Judge Samuel Kent has been placed in the position of filing complaints as an inmate in Texas. He is serving 33-months for obstruction of justice after he lied about allegations involving groping and sexual assault of two female court employees. He claims to have been abused as a prisoner due to his status as a former federal judge.

His attorney, Dick DeGuerin, filed the motion in U.S. District Court in Houston asking for resentencing. One of the more troubling allegations — besides verbal and physical abuse — is that Kent has been denied access to a federal substance abuse program that would have allowed him to reduce his sentence by as much as a year. I do not see why he would be denied such access to the program.

The filing states “[t]he Federal Bureau of Prisons has subjected Sam Kent to abusive psychological and physical conditions that have jeopardized his ongoing recovery from severe depression and alcoholism, while arbitrarily prohibiting him from participation in rehabilitative programs.”

Source; AOL

104 thoughts on “Former Judge Samuel Kent Files Motion Alleging Abuse in Prison”

  2. And poor ol’ Judge Kent.

    You shoulda thought about that before you starting abusing your powers of office, sport.

    Pardon me while I cry you a river. And by cry you a river, I mean laugh hysterically at the irony of one guilty of abusing their power being abused by a power structure.

  3. Yissil,

    “It’s not exactly ironic but it’s something.”

    It’s exactly a function of market forces. China, unlike America, is trying to build up their middle class so they can be the world’s largest consumer market instead of us. Building a middle class, even in this country, required doing away with many of the trappings of industrial slavery. Just like tearing down the American middle class will result in the reinstitution of the trappings of industrial slavery.

    Dickens anyone? It goes well with the cake.

  4. AY,

    It’s we who have the 2.3 million and they the 1.6 million.

    Actually the times story says that they have a few hundred thousand persons under “administrative detention” being reeducated, and those don’t count in the above statistics.

    Perhaps the Chinese will catch up with us in this field as in so many others. But ruthless economic exploitation of the working class is a lot more efficient and productive than keeping 1% of the adult population in jail, so I guess they are aready ahead.

    I read somewhere that Chinese labor is getting too expensive for this globalized economy and Chinese prison-like jobs are being offshored to Burma and Bangladesh.It’s not exactly ironic but it’s something.

  5. So Yissil,

    Are you suggesting that the Government of China place more people in Prison? To keep proportionality equal?

    Say we have 250 million and they have 1 billion….

    we have 1.6 million in prison and they have 2.6 million. Shouldn’t they have 6.4 million based upon raw statistics or does working in a factory making electronic components sit well with you? This should count for something..

  7. JoshOnPc,

    Alcohol combined with ego and depression make for a mess all the way around…..It has taken many a persons life and soul when it had gotten a hold.

    I do not doubt, what you heard or what was felt amongst the “Islander” of Galveston….there is lots of old money there and talk is a whisper as you have said. It more about the silent nods that are given with approval. They are still distrustful of the Yankees and Feds regardless of where they came from.

  8. Former judge Naughty Nottingham was also described in a way similar to that Josh describes conversations about judge Kent. The city council president that I sued was commonly called “King Bennett”. I think that was because both benefited certain people at the expense of other peoples rights. Those that were benefited were happy.

  9. I met Judge Kent once briefly at a restaurant in Galveston. An attorney I had the privledge to work for introduced me (only because I was standing there) and had a short conversation with him regarding nothing of real concern. Then we left. As we drove back to the office we engaged in a conversation about what it was like to argue before the judge. I left that conversation with few good impressions. Subsequent conversations with other attorneys seemed only to confirm my initial impression. There was almost a fear of standing before him in court, and no one was complimentary of him. He was described as the ‘King’ or ‘Emperor’ of the Island. A fact that I found mildly amusing as Galveston is such and incongruous place that I couldn’t imagine wanting to rule there. These feelings though were not confined to the few in the legal community, but seemingly the entire island knew his name and more importantly his reputation. The thing is that everything, all of it, was said in quiet hushed tones and murmers, as if he were Lord Voldemort.

    When his troubles began in earnest, he was crucified by the populace. Whispers became gradually louder, and in print he was suddenly accredited with labeling himself the “Lion King” or “Emperor.” And then, a funny thing happened. Some, not too many, of the local lawyers started whispering, never too loudly, support for him. It was as if something about his fall from grace had made them see some spark of humanity that they had previously ignored. But, what they voiced was exactly that he was a drunk. That may not seem very supportive I understand, but they felt clearly as if his problems extended directly from that and that were he to sober up he could once again rule with perhaps slightly less ego.

    I have no special insight into Judge Kent’s personal life, and certainly no acceptable rationale for his behavior, but I think someone so universally hated probably really needs the help, and I don’t like the idea of depriving him of it. However poor the help may be.

  10. tomdarch,

    I think you sir are on to something. I can think of about 95% of all of my criminal clients that alcohol or some substance abuse (except weed) was involved if they were the perpetrator. Now most substance abuse cases, such as weed, coke, crack etc were charge as Public Safety/Society as a Whole/Menace to Society.

    As some have stated and I will reiterate here the war on drugs is a dismal failure. It was and has been the basis for substantiating police departments work. But I had a friend who quit being a LEO 2 years after he was appointed/forced to do all forfeitures under the drug laws. The reason he quit, he could not stand stealing some peoples hard earned money. Hence, if you got paid say 1,000 for a weeks work and bought 250.00 in drugs. They took the remaining money, even if it was a set up and forfeited it to the police department. This was an autoworkers basic pay.

    I remember reading an article in Playboy a National Crime to smoke weed on the mall in DC. It was pointed out to him that the Federal Government did not regulate weed and those same long haired bastards protesting the Vietnam War were the same ones smoking weed. Well, it didn’t take long to figure out to get rid of em’ they just bust em….Although you had to have a stamp to sell it, it did not count if you merely possessed it….

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9252490

  11. Well 95% of the general population can’t afford a civil lawsuit and they are all at risk of incarceration if they file a civil lawsuit even if they tell the truth at all times. That is what happened to me. DOJ has turned into a bunch of lawless thugs. Rule 20 prohibits DOJ from appearing in a third party civil lawsuit unless it has a statutory basis and files a motion but if they want to DOJ will simply kidnap and incarcerate citizens in order to determine the result of a third party civil lawsuit.

  12. Swartmore mom,

    Unfortunately I have seen this stigma before. Although he was no convicted of a sexual crime, the clerk and yes most of that is ministerial probably did not take the time to read the final decision.

    I know a guy who for 25 years was moaning about a felony conviction. He wanted to get his record clean with an expungment. You may know him as well. He ordered the record of sentencing and record of release so that a motion could be filed. When I looked at the last order he had completed the sentence successfully and the judge wrote pretty much the following language:

    The Defendant successfully completed the 10 years of probation. I have yet to have one do so. I am ordering the following: That the case is dismissed and all records are to be sealed. He ran around with this felony on his record because of a clerk’s great error and the clients naivety. It took the Texas Department of Public Safety 6 more months and a threat of a law suit, because in theory they should have received the same paper work, before they took it off of the record.

    Back to Kents, if he has a substance abuse problem and not treating it would lead to disaster and probably a relapse. The note said that he did not get the program because he was sober/dry for a year before he was incarcerated in the Florida DOC. Well, that could have been a condition of bond that he not drink. As one said, its more about retribution than rehabilitation….

    Blouise,

    Its about damn time today you agreed with me. I was feeling like the lost step child in the woods….Joe Dirt comes to mind….

  13. “[t]he Federal Bureau of Prisons has subjected Sam Kent to abusive psychological and physical conditions that have jeopardized his ongoing recovery from severe depression and alcoholism, while arbitrarily prohibiting him from participation in rehabilitative programs.”

    How many judges and/or prosecutors actually understand the reality of what it means to be in prison? Many (possibly the majority) of the people sent to prison have mental and/or substance problems, and prison is just about the worst possible environment for them. One positive outcome of this situation would be if this former judge would talk to current judges, prosecutors and politicians about what’s going on inside prisons. A little reform would probably go a long way towards reducing recidivism.

    Just under 1% of the US population is in prison or awaiting trial. Other than Russia, the rest of the developed world has rates much closer to 0.1%, so we’re clearly doing something wrong. It costs too much to warehouse that much of our population, some of whom could be contributing positively to our GDP.

  16. Samuel Kent is one of many that never see the drug treatment that is part of the sentencing and when they do receive alcohol and drug treatment, it is usually in a facility that continues the punitive treatment that is prison approved rather than programs that have documented success in handling addiction and changing the ethics conditions of the participants. American prisons are not about rehabilitation, but only about punishment, so their drug treatment follows that philosophy.

  19. I spent 5 months in county jail even though I wasn’t charged with a crime and have no criminal record.

    I met a woman who seemed very sweet and nice who got 30 years for vehicular homicide. She said that looking back she did think she had been drinking too much but she had a professional job she maintained with no effort. The fatal accident was on New Year’s Eve.

    She said that of course she wants to be released and doesn’t care about getting another driver’s license. She said she applied for substance abuse treatment but was denied that because the low security facility she was assigned to didn’t offer treatment and to get the substance abuse treatment she would have to transfer to a high security prison. She said she had been in a high security prison, with 23 hour lock down etc., and couldn’t handle that as a condition to get substance abuse treatment even if she had to spend longer in detention.

  20. Oh, so it makes a difference as to who you are? Come on Sam….it did not make a difference to you when you had the power to do something about it. If you claim now that drinking made you do it, were you drinking while rendering Opinions or hearing Motions or making any kind of decision that affected other lives, liberty and property.

    If he does have a substance problem by all means he should get the assistance he needs. Maybe they will open the lids of the eyes while they at least hear this motion.

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