A federal judge who pleaded guilty to charges related to sexually abusing his secretary was to return to court today for sentencing.
HOUSTON, TEXAS (AP) --
U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent could have received up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine after admitting to obstruction of justice but prosecutors said they wouldn't seek more than three years in prison under a plea agreement with him.
Kent, on the federal bench for nearly two decades, became the first federal judge charged with a sex crime.
He entered the plea in February before U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, a visiting senior judge from Pensacola, Fla., as jury selection was about to get under way for his trial on the obstruction charge and five sex-crime charges alleging he groped his secretary and his former case manager.
Conviction on the most serious of those charges could have sent him to prison for life.
As part of the plea agreement, Kent admitted the sexual contact was against the two women's will.
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