This earlier post wondered what was up with the apparently involuntary four month leave-of-absence of Galveston-based U.S. District Judge, Sam Kent.
Well, now we know.
The Judicial Council of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order Friday reprimanding and admonishing Judge Kent in regard to a complaint complaint of judicial misconduct lodged against the judge on in May alleging sexual harassment toward an employee of the federal judicial system. A former case manager for Judge Kent confirmed to the Texas Lawyer and then the Chronicle that she filed the complaint against the judge, but declined further comment. The former case manager now works in the clerk’s office in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas.
Nevertheless, the prospect of further litigation is definitely possible. The clerk has hired prominent Houston attorney Rusty Hardin, who is always good for a quote or two. “We have been watching, with interest, the investigation,” Hardin told the Chronicle.
Meanwhile, Judge Kent appears to be putting up a fight to the charges. He has hired prominent defense attorney Maria Wyckoff Boyce of Baker & Botts to represent him. My sense is that the brevity of the Judicial Council’s order indicates that the panel expects further litigation over the allegetions.
Fifth Circuit Chief Judge Edith Jones, who is not one to take such matters lightly, signed the order and wrote that a Special Investigatory Committee appointed to investigate the complaint expanded the original complaint and investigated other “instances of alleged inappropriate behavior toward other employees of the federal judicial system.” The committee recommended a reprimand “along with the accomplishment of other remedial courses of action.” The judicial council accepted the recommendations and concluded the proceedings “because appropriate remedial action had been and will be taken, including but not limited to the Judge’s four-month leave of absence from the bench, reallocation of the Galveston/Houston docket and other measures.” The special investigatory committee’s Report, Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Recommendations, and Judge Kent’s Response to the Report, are confidential and will not be disclosed.
According to the Chronicle account, one of the more interesting allegations apparently investigated by the panel was the following:

“That Kent inappropriately favored former colleagues and other favorites in his decisions and in overseeing settlement negotiations. In 2001, Kent was ordered to transfer all cases from his court that were handled by his best friend.”

H’mm. Wonder if that had any impact on this recent settlement (see background here)?
Update: Ilya Somin provides some additional background on Judge Kent.
And this Galveston Daily News article provides some additional information on the case:

The Daily News was told the judge called his case manager to his office, where physical contact occurred.
When she resisted, he told her she owed him because he had interceded in her favor in a dispute among clerkís office employees, the paper was told.
Since Kent was suspended in August, The Daily News has conducted interviews with more than a dozen members of the legal community ó lawyers, their employees and employees of the court. Some claimed first-hand knowledge of allegations of Kentís misconduct, but none agreed to be identified.
McBroom wasnít the only female employee Kent, who is more than 6 feet tall and more than 200 pounds, is alleged to have touched inappropriately, The Daily News was told. [. . .]
Those arenít the only reports that Kent engaged in inappropriate conduct.
Other sources have told The Daily News that, at a party and in the offices of a law firm, a drunken Kent cornered women and grabbed them.