The Statement Of The Woman Who Brought Down Judge Kent

The Chronicle has helpfully posted the full text of the statement that Cathy McBroom, the woman who had the guts to stand up to feel-copping federal judge Sam Kent, gave at his sentencing hearing. The five pages are well worth reading.

McBroom describes a drunken Kent groping her just 10 feet from where the court's security officers worked. "He told me he didn't care if the officers could hear him because he knew everyone was afraid of him," she said.

She says she stayed on the job -- "the question in everyone's mind" -- because "each time it happened, he later promised to leave me alone and behave professionally. I so wanted to believe that."

Kent, as McBroom describes him, is a master manipulator who sets employee against employee and would blackball anyone who crossed his path.

She said she had to go to several attorneys before Rusty Hardin agreed to take her case.

"Every employee in Galveston has been afraid of [Kent's] power and control," she said. "So afraid that many of them refused to tell the truth about the incidents or failed to offer the information that could have been helpful to the government. Some of the court's current employees wanted to write letters asking for a stiff penalty for the judge but were afraid of retaliation."

Yikes. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Efforts to impeach Kent, and thus deprive him of the fat pension he would otherwise get, are expected to begin soon.