Zimbabwe Busts Former US Rep on Porn Charge

Melvin Reynolds resigned in '95 over statutory rape conviction
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 18, 2014 1:13 AM CST
Zimbabwe Busts Former US Rep on Porn Charge
In this Nov. 28, 2012, file photo, former US Rep. Melvin Reynolds announces that he's joining the increasingly crowded field running for the 2nd District seat vacated by Jesse Jackson Jr.   (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

A former US congressman was arrested in Zimbabwe yesterday on alleged porn possession and immigration violations, the AP reports. Melvin Jay Reynolds is an Illinois Democrat who resigned from his House of Representatives seat in 1995 after being convicted of 12 counts of statutory rape (specifically, NBC New York reports, he had sex with an underage campaign worker), obstruction of justice, and solicitation of child pornography. He tried to regain his seat in 2012 after Jesse Jackson Jr. vacated it, but finished with less than 1% of the vote in the primary, the Washington Post reports. (More Zimbabwe stories.)

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