'I'll watch your back any time': Judge who helped exotic dancer by illegal drugs jailed for 30 days

'I'll watch your back any time': Judge who helped exotic dancer by illegal drugs jailed for 30 days

 

A semi-retired federal judge was sentenced today to 30 days in prison for helping an exotic dancer buy illegal drugs, telling her 'I'll watch your back any time'.

Jack Camp, 67, pleaded guilty in November to charges of aiding a felon's possession of cocaine, marijuana and prescription pain killers.

He admitted to illegal drug possession and to unlawfully giving his court-issued laptop to the dancer for her personal use.

At Camp's sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan said: 'He has denigrated the federal judiciary, he has encouraged disrespect for the rule of law.'

 

Lapse in judgement: Sherry Ann Ramos, the Atlanta stripper who worked with authorities to snare Judge Camp on drug and gun charges

A native Georgian, Camp graduated from The Citadel, a top military college, with his Bachelor's Degree in 1965 and later graduated from the University of Virginia with his Master's Degree in 1967 and his Juris Doctor degree in 1973.

He served in the U.S. Army on active duty during the Vietnam War from 1967 to 1970.

He was appointed to the federal bench in 1987 by then-President Ronald Reagan.

Disgraced: Judge Jack Camp was told his actions with an exotic dancer 'denigrated the federal judiciary'

He served as chief judge in the Northern District of Georgia before adopting senior status in 2008, a form of semi-retirement.

He resigned as part of his guilty plea.

Camp met exotic dancer Sherry Ann Ramos, 26, at an Atlanta club last spring, when he paid her for a private dance, according to court documents.

In October, Camp and the dancer, who was then cooperating with authorities, purchased drugs from an undercover agent.

Before the drug buy, Camp boasted that he was carrying a gun.

According to court documents, he told the dancer: 'I'll watch your back any time.'

Camp was arrested and two loaded pistols were recovered from his truck. He called his behaviour  'wrong and foolish' and said he could not explain why he broke the law.

He told Judge Hogan: 'I am embarrassed and humiliated.'

Camp's wife, Elizabeth, wrote a letter to the court blaming her husband's behaviour on bipolar disorder and to head injuries he suffered in a bicycle accident.

She wrote: 'I am steadfast in my belief that the crisis has to do with an internal war waged of the mind.'

Miss  Ramos, a convicted felon who spent three years in prison for her role in a methamphetamine distribution operation, secretly recorded conversations with Camp to help build the case against him.