Atlanta News

 3:10 p.m. Friday, March 11, 2011

 

Ex-judge Camp sentenced to 30 days in prison

 

 

Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan said he could not give a sentence of only probation because Camp had breached his oath of office.

"He has disgraced his office," Hogan said. "He has denigrated the federal judiciary. He has encouraged disrespect for the rule of law."

Before being sentenced, Camp apologized for what he had done and thanked his family and friends, many of whom filled the courtroom.

"I have embarrassed and humiliated my family as well as myself," Camp said. "I have embarrassed the court I have served on and I am deeply sorry for that. When I look back at the circumstances which brought me here and look at what I did, it makes me sick."

Camp said that at the end of the day, "the only thing I can say is that I'm so very sorry."

Camp pleaded for leniency from Hogan, asking to be allowed to remain in his home and community to repair his marriage, receive psychiatric treatment and rebuild his name.

But Hogan, a Washington judge with 29 years on the bench, said he could not hand out a sentence of probation for crimes committed by a high-ranking government official. He then read aloud the oath of office Camp took 22 years ago in the ceremonial courtroom across the hallway and noted Camp had sworn to uphold the law.

"Instead, for whatever reasons, the demons he had made him go another way," Hogan said as Camp, stone-faced, looked on.

Hogan acknowledged Camp had disgraced himself and humiliated his family. Because of his conduct, Camp had essentially "chiseled a scarlet letter into his forehead for the rest of his life."

As a judge, Camp often meted out harsh sentences and rarely gave breaks to defendants who presented mitigating circumstances to explain their conduct. On Friday, Hogan was asked by Camp's lawyers to grant leniency because of the ex-judge's decades-long battle with a bipolar disorder and brain damage caused by a 2000 biking accident.

In court motion filed Thursday, Elizabeth Camp, the ex-judge's wife, asked Hogan for mercy and a sentence of probation, saying her husband is a changed man. Thanks to proper medical treatment, the couple has begun to repair the damage to their marriage, she said.

The mania associated with bipolar disorder "has often been described as depression's evil twin, the insidious instigator that spurs one on to do all manner of lewd and immoral acts," Elizabeth Camp wrote. "Mania handcuffs and gags the conscience."

In late 2009, her husband was prescribed the wrong medication, she wrote. "I never knew which Jack Camp would walk through the door at the end of the day -- the humble, sincere, modest, frugal and unassuming man I married, or the over-confident, brash, forgetful, self-absorbed spendthrift who now saddened me with frequent visits to our nightly dinner table."

But now, she added, the man she married 35 years ago has returned. "What a delight to see the evil twin of mania defeated through a combination of modern medicine and Jack's solemn commitment to treatment," she wrote, telling Hogan a term of imprisonment would disrupt her husband's progress and his quest to rebuild his family and reputation.

Atlanta criminal defense attorney Paul Kish said Thursday that Camp rarely granted breaks to defendants when they presented mitigation arguments to explain their behavior.

"One school of thought is that he should be punished the same way he punished everyone else," Kish said. "The other is that he probably would not be punished for this in federal court, but for his position. It's all very sad."

Camp, 67, resigned from the U.S. District Court bench shortly before he pleaded guilty in November to federal charges -- giving the stripper, who he knew was a convicted felon, $160 to buy drugs.

Camp was a senior judge at the time of his arrest. He will continue to receive a $174,000-a-year salary, as do all federal judges who retire and have the requisite years of service.

Camp began paying the exotic dancer for sex and drugs after he met her last May at the Goldrush Showbar in Atlanta. By Oct. 1, the dancer had turned informant and Camp, who was armed, was arrested by FBI agents in an undercover drug sting.

After the drug deal was consummated, Camp told the undercover agent who was posing as the dealer, "We'll be calling you again," federal prosecutors said.

According to recent court filings, the U.S. probation office has determined that Camp faces a mandatory minimum term of 15 days in prison and up to 6 months imprisonment.

Camp's lawyers recently filed motions asking Hogan, a judge from Washington, D.C., to impose a sentence of probation, a fine and community service.

In response, federal prosecutors said Camp should serve at least 15 days in custody, but they did not recommend a specific term of confinement.

"Beginning in May 2010 this defendant, by his conduct, dishonored his community, his family and our system of justice and violated the very laws he swore to uphold," the Justice Department filing said. Camp's actions "cast dark aspersions on the criminal justice system and put the very integrity of the federal courts at issue."

LINK TO PHOTO OF JUDGE:

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/ex-judge-camp-sentenced-867817.html