Mel Reynolds

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Mel Reynolds
Mel Reynolds

Melvin Jay Reynolds (born January 8, 1952) is a former Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois.

[edit] Biography

Reynolds was born in Plainfield, New Jersey and moved to Chicago as a child. He received a Associate of Arts from one of the City Colleges of Chicago, and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Harvard University with a M.P.A.. He also won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford's Lincoln College, received a (LL.B.).

Before entering politics, Reynolds worked as an assistant professor of political science at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. He also founded the Community Economic Development Education Foundation.

Reynolds was unsuccessful in his 1988 and 1990 campaigns against Congressman Gus Savage. However, Reynolds defeated Savage in 1992. He served in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995.

In August 1994, he was indicted for sexual assault and criminal sexual abuse[1] 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.[1] 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, who had a wife and a child at the time of the incident, was sentenced to five years in prison and 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, at the behest of Jesse Jackson Sr. However, Reynolds had never applied for presidential clemency, which is the first step to be considered for a presidential pardon. As a result, Reynolds was released from prison and served the remaining time in a halfway house. Upon his release from the halfway house, Reynolds was required to register as a sex offender, as the state of his residence abided by Megan's Law. One critic of Reynolds' pardon and those involved in it (Bill Clinton and Jesse Jackson), said "We have a Congressman who was convicted of having sex with a subordinate pardoned by a President who had sex with a subordinate, and the request was made by a minister who had sex with a subordinate. How much more insulting to the nation's intelligence can you get?" [2][3]

In 2004, he was overwhelmingly defeated in the Democratic primary by incumbent Jesse Jackson, Jr. in his attempt to win back his old House seat.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Rudin, Ken. "The Equal-Opportunity Culture of Corruption", NPR.org, 2007-06-06. Retrieved on 2007-07-29. 
  2. ^ Clinton Commutation Grants, January 2001, University of Pittsburgh Law (http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/pardons6b.htm)
  3. ^ Interview with Mel Reynolds, Chicago Reporter, January 2001 (http://www.chicagoreporter.com/2001/1-2001/sentencing/Mel.htm)
  4. ^ http://www.politics1.com/blog-0304a.htm

[edit] External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Gus Savage		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Illinois's 2nd congressional district
1993-1995		 Succeeded by
Jesse Jackson, Jr.