Posted on 02/19/2014 10:49:27 AM PST by Second Amendment First
Former Rep. Mel Reynolds (D-Ill.) pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Zimbabwe to charges that he possessed pornography.
Reynolds, who will spend a third night in a Zimbabwe jail, is accused of overstaying his visa and of using his smartphone to take photos and videos of naked men and women in his Harare hotel room.
His lawyer had recommended that Reynolds plead guilty, according to The Associated Press , because the charges only require that he be fined and deported.
An alleged former bodyguard for the former congressman say he and four others denounced Reynolds to immigration authorities because he owed them more than $22,000 in unpaid salaries since August, the AP reports.
Reynolds resigned from Congress in 1995 after pleading guilty to statutory rape following a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer. He was also convicted of bank fraud, but former President Clinton later commuted that sentence.
Reynolds told reporters that he has not received any help from the U.S. embassy during his stay in jail. His bail hearing has been set for Thursday.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving person.
What a scumbag. Keep him there.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-mel-reynolds-arrest-zimbabwe-20140219,0,3673480.story
Legal troublesIn August 1994, Reynolds was indicted for sexual assault and criminal sexual abuse for engaging in a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer that began during the 1992 campaign. Despite the charges, he continued his campaign and was re-elected that November; he had no opposition. Reynolds initially denied the charges, which he claimed were racially motivated. On August 22, 1995, he was convicted on 12 counts of sexual assault, obstruction of justice and solicitation of child pornography. He resigned his seat on October 1 of that year.
Reynolds was sentenced to five years in prison, thus he expected to be released in 1998. However, in April 1997 he was convicted on 15 unrelated counts of bank fraud and lying to SEC investigators. These charges resulted in an additional sentence of 78 months in federal prison. Reynolds served all of his first sentence, and served 42 months in prison for the later charges. At that point, President Bill Clinton commuted the sentence for bank fraud. As a result, Reynolds was released from prison and served the remaining time in a halfway house.
Later career[edit]
In January 2001, Reynolds was hired by Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/Push Coalition to decrease the number of young blacks going to prison.
In 2004, Reynolds was overwhelmingly defeated in the Democratic primary by incumbent Jesse Jackson, Jr., with Jackson netting 88% of the vote. In late 2012, the Chicago ABC affiliate reported that Reynolds had plans to announce his candidacy to replace the recently resigned Jesse Jackson, Jr. in the Illinois's 2nd congressional district special election, 2013.
On February 18, 2014, Reynolds was arrested in Zimbabwe for overstaying his visa. He was allegedly found to be in possession of pornographic videos he had filmed with several women at the hotel where he was staying. Possession of pornography is a crime in the country. He had also purportedly accrued over $24,000 in hotel charges that he had yet to pay.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-mel-reynolds-arrest-zimbabwe-20140219,0,4702513,full.story
What punishment does Zim have for this kind of thing?
Liberals still keeping it classy!
Reynolds was recently involved in a deal to construct a $145 million five-star Hilton Hotel and office complex in Zimbabwe, The Herald reported. He was pictured last year standing alongside government officials in a Herald report about the launch of the hotel construction. A spokeswoman for Hilton, based in McLean, Va., had no immediate comment. When given written questions on Tuesday by the Tribune about Reynolds' reported involvement in its Zimbabwe hotel development, Hilton officials did not respond.
causing a state senator to resign her seat to run for the House to replace Reynolds
letting an unknown lecturer from Chicago slides into the Illinois Senate unopposed
and the rest is history.
Excellent summary!
What is it about the democrats that they are so impressed by the crease of their pants?
Help? What's he want them to do, stop by the jail and show him their junk?
Insert key
Turn
Throw key away
Perhaps there's some history between Mr. Reynolds and the current chief executive.
He’s one of Obama’s BROTHERS!!
They usually always refer to an ex-congressman as "congressman" -- unless of course he is arrested in Zimbabwe I guess.
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