HOUSTON -- A federal judge indicted on charges alleging he fondled a former court case manager wants two lie detector tests that he passed admitted into evidence at his January trial.

Attorneys for U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent said he denied the allegations in polygraph tests in August and September. Attorney Dick DeGuerin filed a motion Thursday saying the tests “failed to reveal physiological responses indicative of deception.”

Kent, 59, was indicted in August on two counts of abusive sexual contact and one count of attempted aggravated sexual abuse following a U.S. Justice Department investigation into complaints by case manager Cathy McBroom.

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 was the first federal judge in 17 years indicted while still on the bench.

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.

McBroom has said the alleged harassment culminated in March 2007, when the judge pulled up her blouse and bra and tried to force her to perform oral sex when they were interrupted.

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

The Associated Press does not normally name alleged victims of sexual abuse, but McBroom’s attorney and her family have used her name in publicly discussing the case.

Two days after Kent made his first court appearance, a gag order was issued in the case by U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, a Florida jurist who has been appointed to preside over the Jan. 26 trial.

Vinson’s gag order prevented attorneys, witnesses and court personnel from making public comment about the case. After several media organizations, including The Associated Press, objected to the order, Vinson still kept it in place, only making minor changes to it.

Pending his trial, Kent continues to hear cases at the federal courthouse in Houston, where he was transferred this year as part of his punishment by the judicial council. McBroom was also relocated to Houston after reporting her allegations.

Only Congress can remove a federal judge through the impeachment process, which starts with the House voting for impeachment and then the Senate holding a trial.