Tracknum: 27433.201103070547.p275lbdx027404 Pubdate: Sun, 06 Mar 2011 Source: Athens Banner-Herald (GA) Copyright: 2011 Athens Newspapers Inc Contact: http://www.onlineathens.com/feedback.shtml Website: http://www.onlineathens.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1535 Author: Greg Bluestein, Associated Press FEDS: EX-JUDGE SHOULD GO TO PRISON FOR DRUG CRIMES ATLANTA -- A former veteran judge who pleaded guilty to drug-related charges involving a stripper owes a "debt to society" and should serve at least 15 days in prison, prosecutors said in court documents. Prosecutors urged Senior Judge Thomas Hogan to overrule Jack Camp's request that he be sentenced to probation, a fine and community service. Camp's sentencing is schedule for March 11. Camp should face between 15 days and six months in prison to "reflect the seriousness of the offense, promote respect for the law and provide just punishment," prosecutors said in documents filed Friday. Camp, 67, resigned from the U.S. District Court in November when he pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a felon's possession of cocaine when he bought drugs for a stripper who was secretly cooperating with authorities. He also pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors. Camp said in documents last week that his decades-long battle with depression and a bicycling accident in 2000 caused brain damage that led him to use drugs and start seeing the stripper. His attorneys said then "there is no punishment he will endure more painful than the guilt and shame he faces every day of the rest of his life." Prosecutors said there's no dispute that Camp was a community leader, a family man and a respected jurist before he struck up the relationship with the stripper in May 2010. "However 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 an oath to uphold," the filing said. It said Camp's actions "cast dark aspersions on the criminal justice system and put the very integrity of the federal courts at issue." Camp, who is married with two adult children, is a Vietnam War veteran who was appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan in 1987. After he started seeing the stripper, and prosecutors say he soon began paying her for sex and using drugs with her. She became a government informant by October, when Camp was arrested in a parking lot by federal agents after he gave the stripper $160 for a drug deal. They also recovered two guns from his front seat and discovered that he gave the stripper his $825 government-issued laptop computer. Prosecutors agree that Hogan should consider Camp's mental and physical health issues when coming up with a sentence, but they contend those issues should not excuse his actions or lessen the seriousness of the offense. "Defendant argues that he has suffered a loss of reputation, his livelihood and the trust of his family," said the filing. "While this is true, defendant also owes a debt to society for his conduct."