http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/current/news/stories/reynolds.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
LOS ANGELES (Reuter) - Rep. Mel Reynolds has resigned his seat in Congress in the face of prison and almost certain expulsion by his House colleagues, following his conviction in a sex scandal.
The 43-year-old second term Illinois Democrat announced his decision Friday on CNN's ``Larry King Live.'' He again denied, as he had during his trial, that he had sex with a former campaign worker who was 16 and thus under age at the time. But he said the conviction would handicap his ability to be an effective legislator.
Reynolds said his resignation would be effective Oct.1. At that time Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar will have 115 days to call a special election to fill his seat.
Reynolds was convicted last month of having sex with a minor, soliciting for child pornography and obstuction of justice.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 22 and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of four years in prison if his appeal fails.
Reynbolds is also the subject of a separate federal investigation into alleged misuse of campaign funds. And he has mounting financial problems.
``I don't drink. I don't even smoke,'' Reynolds said. ``I made a very stupid, immature mistake ... I allowed myself to get into a conversation with someone .. 17, 18, 19 years old, and have an explicit, fantasy conversation.
``I sincerely regret that,'' he said.
Asked if his accuser, Beverly Heard, now 19, lied when she testified during his trial that the two had an actual sexual relationship and not a telephonic one, Reynolds said ''Absolutely. I've always said this. I was the only person in this.''
Tapes of the lurid conversations between Reynolds and Heard, played for jurors during the trial, were a key element in his conviction.
He called the case mounted against him an ``extraordinary persecution'' on the part of the the Cook County State's Attorney in Chicago, said two members of the jury had decided he was guilty before the trial began and accused the Chicago news media of bias, saying there were no black reporters covering politics in the town for major news outlets.