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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Reynolds Sentenced To Five Years Disgraced Congressman Convicted Of Sex With Teen

James Webb Associated Press

Rep. Mel Reynolds, his promising political career ruined by his conviction for having sex with a teen-age campaign worker, was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison by a judge who told him bluntly, “You blew it.”

“I think of all those things you could have done for education, for those kids … who will join gangs because you weren’t there to help,” Judge Fred G. Suria told the 43-year-old lawmaker. “…You threw it away.”

Before the sentencing, an unrepentant Reynolds delivered an angry, rambling, 40-minute denunciation of the prosecution and the media, accusing them of racism.

“When they shackle me, like they shackled my slave ancestors and take me off to jail, nobody in this room will see me crawl,” the black congressman said.

Suria sentenced Reynolds to the mandatory minimum four years in prison for criminal sexual assault and ordered him to serve a concurrent four-year term for child pornography.

He also ordered Reynolds to serve an additional year afterward for obstruction of justice.

Suria scoffed at the notion that race played a role.

“This case is not about race,” Suria said. “This case is not about politics.”

Suria refused to grant Reynolds a bond to stay free while he is appealing his case and ordered the congressman to go to prison on Oct. 5. Reynolds has announced his resignation from Congress, effective Oct. 1.

He left the building after the sentencing without commenting to reporters.

Reynolds’ attorneys said they were pleased that the sentence was only one year more than the mandatory minimum.

“I thought it was terrific,” attorney Terry Gillespie said.

Reynolds, a two-term Democrat and former Rhodes scholar, was convicted Aug. 22 of having sex with Beverly Heard when she was 16 and 17 and obstructing the investigation of the relationship.

Heard, a former campaign volunteer who also is black, complained to police about Reynolds and told her story to a grand jury, then recanted and refused to testify against him. To compel her testimony, Suria sent her to jail for 13 days.

When she finally did take the stand, she acknowledged that she had underage sexual relations with the congressman but urged the jury to be lenient.

Defense lawyers said secretly recorded tapes of Reynolds’ phone conversations with Heard convinced the jury that he was guilty. On one, he asked Heard to obtain naked photos of a fictitious 15-year-old that she had described as eager to have sexual relations with him.

The congressman admitted having phone sex with the teenager, but said he was not guilty of any crime.