U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent was indicted last week on what he called "flagrant, scurrilous" charges following a Justice Department investigation into complaints by case manager Cathy McBroom.

"I plead absolutely, unequivocally not guilty and look very much forward to a trial on the merits," a feisty Kent told 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Edward Prado, brought to Houston to hear the case.

Kent was released on his own recognizance and did not speak to reporters. His wife, Sarah, attended the hearing and the couple left the courthouse holding hands.

"The charges are lies. He's now eager for his day in court," Kent's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said after the hearing.

Prosecutors wouldn't comment after the hearing.

Kent, 59, faces two counts of abusive sexual contact and one count of attempted aggravated sexual abuse. If convicted of attempted aggravated sexual abuse, Kent could face up to life in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Each of the two counts of abusive sexual contact carries a sentence of up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

McBroom accused the judge of physical sexual harassment over a four-year period starting in 2003 when he was the only U.S. district court judge in Galveston, an island beach town 50 miles southeast of Houston.

Some examples:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

Kent was to make his first court appearance Wednesday after being indicted last week on federal sex crimes following a Department of Justice investigation. He is facing two counts of abusive sexual contact and one count of attempted aggravated sexual abuse.

If convicted of attempted aggravated sexual abuse, Kent could face up to life in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Each of the two counts of abusive sexual contact carries a sentence of up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Kent's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, has said his client is innocent and will stay on the bench while he awaits trial.

Kent's former case manager, Cathy McBroom, accused the judge of physically harassing her in a sexual manner over a four-year period, starting in 2003. The final incident was in March 2007, when she said the judge pulled up her blouse and bra and tried to escalate contact until they were interrupted.

Her accusations were first investigated by the Judicial Council of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which suspended Kent in September 2007 for four months with pay but didn't detail the allegations against him.

As part of the judicial council's punishment, Kent was transferred to the busy Houston federal courthouse, where McBroom was relocated after reporting her allegations. Kent had been the only U.S. District Court judge in Galveston, an island beach town 50 miles southeast of Houston.

Until his indictment, Kent was known for writing humorous rulings peppered with sarcastic scoldings of lawyers. Kent, a federal jurist in Galveston since President George H.W. Bush appointed him in 1990, has not presided over any high-profile cases.

Kent is the first federal judge to be charged with sex crimes. Most other indictments of federal judges have involved corruption or other financial misdeeds.

After filing a Right to Know request, the American Civil Liberties Union found 188 such citations between March 1, 2005, and Oct. 31.

"Nobody likes to get sworn at, but you can't make it a crime," said Witold Walczak, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Foundation of Pennsylvania.

The ACLU's request came in connection with a federal lawsuit involving David Hackbart, who was cited after allegedly making an obscene gesture at another driver, and then at a police sergeant. In a recent court filing, the city said the citation was not for Hackbart's gestures, but because he was blocking traffic.

Walczak told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the city had initially claimed it had only one disorderly conduct citation involving rude remarks to police or other people over that period. He called the additional citations evidence that the department had failed to adequately train its officers.

Walczak said officers were wrong to cite a woman who said, "I'm a (expletive) passenger," during a traffic stop; a woman who was "swearing profanities to a companion in front of the Girl Scouts"; and a man who "engaged in loud noise, racial slurs and pig remarks."

City attorney Michael Kennedy declined to comment on Hackbart's case and told the newspaper he could not explain the difference between the 188 citations found in court records and the one citation claimed by city police.

In 2002, a Pittsburgh man won a $3,000 jury verdict for malicious prosecution after being cited for a traffic dispute in which he cursed at officers.

A decision by gay couples to wed represents "a personal expression of emotional devotion, support and interdependence and a public commitment," state Supreme Court Judge Lucy Billings wrote in a decision issued Tuesday. "With that validity, they expect equal treatment with other married couples."

Thousands of gay New Yorkers over the next few years are expected to make use of Massachusetts' recent decision to let out-of-state gay couples marry there. The Christian legal organization that brought the New York case said it would appeal, while gay-rights and civil-liberties groups hailed the ruling as strengthening legal support for same-sex couples.

In a statement, Gov. David Paterson called it "a wise and fair determination."

Same-sex couples cannot marry in New York, and the state's highest court has said only the Legislature has the authority to change that. But Paterson's counsel told state agencies in May that a recent state appellate court ruling required them to recognize gay marriages legally performed elsewhere or risk discrimination claims.

The directive prompted a lawsuit from the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group that has repeatedly challenged attempts to extend spousal rights to gay couples in New York. Several Republican state senators had signed onto the latest suit.

The alliance is involved in cases around the country that concern gay marriage, abortion, school prayer and other social issues. It already had several ongoing cases over attempts to extend spousal rights to gay couples in New York.

Gene Bush, 52, was charged Tuesday with shooting at a traffic light and at a university building. No one was injured.

Police searched him, his van and a storage unit, finding weapons, ammunition and what police called an anti-government manifesto.

"Given the situation, with the amount of guns and ammunition involved, we thought it best that he remain in custody until we know the full story behind him," said UCLA police Sgt. Phil Baguiao. "We would consider him a danger to society given the circumstances."

Police said officers found Bush carrying the pistols — which were equipped with laser sights — and 400 bullets. They also found another 7,800 rounds of ammunition in his van and 3,000 more in his storage locker, police said.

A UCLA police news release said Bush appeared to have no criminal history and was living out of his van.

After his arrest Sunday, Bush made anti-government statements and told police to look in his nearby suitcase for "the secret," the release said. A Los Angeles police bomb squad found timers, paint thinner and other suspicious items inside, as well as his manifesto.

UCLA police spokeswoman Nancy Greenstein said police believe Bush was acting alone and didn't have a specific target. "He had writings and a lot of them seemed to be anti-government, talk about 9/11," she said.

It wasn't known if Bush had an attorney. He is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Darryl Burton, 46, was scheduled to appear Tuesday at a news conference in Kansas City along with the lawyers and supporters who fought for eight years to have his conviction and life sentence thrown out.

Burton was released from the Jefferson City Correctional Center on Friday, the same day prosecutors in St. Louis decided against trying him a second time.

Attorney Cheryl Pilate, of suburban Kansas City, said Monday night that she and co-counsel Charlie Rogers picked Burton up at the prison, along with a Columbia pastor who had befriended him.

"He had his first meal in Columbia with us," Pilate said. The group then went to St. Louis so that Burton could visit with family members, including "nieces and nephews he had never seen before. That was wonderful." He also has family in Kansas City and will live there, she said.

No physical evidence or suggested motive had ever tied Burton to the June 1984 shooting death of Donald Ball at an Amoco station in St. Louis. Instead, he was convicted solely on the testimony of two men who claimed to have witnessed the shooting.

But one of those witnesses, Claudex Simmons, lied during Burton's 1985 trial in St. Louis Circuit Court when he testified that his own criminal history consisted of just two convictions.

Simmons had actually been convicted of at least seven felonies and five misdemeanors — information that should have been disclosed to the jury, Cole County Circuit Judge Richard G. Callahan wrote in an Aug. 18 ruling accompanying a writ of habeas corpus.