Not many people have risen so high in the legal profession and then fallen so low as former federal Judge Jack T. Camp.
Once the Chief Judge for the Northern District of Georgia, Camp is now trying to stay out of jail, having been brought down by misadventures involving drugs and a stripper. To some people, he is no doubt a laughingstock, the stuff of late-night television comics. But his lawyers say he should be viewed as a tragic figure and that, at 67, he should not have to spend his final days behind bars.
In a memo filed in federal court in Atlanta on Friday, and reported by Allen Lengel on Tickle the Wire, Camp’s attorney, William Taylor of Washington, wrote that Camp, a Ronald Reagan appointee, has been the victim of depression, brain damage from a bicycle accident and personal tragedy that may have contributed to him getting busted for buying cocaine for a stripper with whom he was having an affair.
“They do not excuse his conduct,” his attorney wrote. “They do help explain, however, how in May of 2010 a lonely man in the twilight of his life became entangled with a seductive prostitute more than willing to take advantage of his needs and of his misguided impulse to be her friend and protector.”
Arrested last fall on federal gun and drug charges, Camp pleaded guilty in November to conversion of government property and possession of a controlled substances, as Main Justice reported.
The memo filed by Camp’s lawyer in anticipation of sentencing on March 11 argues in effect that Camp has already been punished enough, by losing his post and profession, by humiliating himself and by the knowledge of the pain he has caused those close to him.
Camp has suffered from prostate cancer; his mother has dementia, and his sister is gravely ill with cancer, the lawyer said, urging that his client be placed on probation and ordered to perform community service rather than languish in prison.
