Former Illinois Democratic Rep. Mel Reynolds was arrested Monday in Zimbabwe after police learned that he was making pornographic films in hotels where he had accumulated $24,500 in unpaid bills, and that he had overstayed his visa by two months.
A former Reynolds assistant told the state-controlled newspaper The Herald that the Democratic pol had been paying a model and several other girls to produce his pornos.
‘His travel documents were not up to date and he used to bring beautiful women at different times,’ said the former employee, identified only as Sunny. ‘He employed five of us including a personal assistant and a driver.’
The Herald also reported that Reynolds had made more than 100 dirty movies and shot some 1,000 nude photos of at least 10 women.
Mere possession of pornographic material is a crime in Zimbabwe.
Reynolds, once a Rhodes scholar and a close confidante of Rev. Jesse Jackson, resigned in disgrace after two years in Congress when he was convicted of 12 counts of statutory rape, solicitation of child pornography and obstruction of justice.
He was found guilty in 1995 of having sex with a 16-year-old campaign worker. Police ran a sting against the congressman when his mistress, who was too young to vote, told her next-door neighbor about the sexual relationship.
That neighbor was a Chicago police officer.
In later taped phone conversations, the teen promised him a three-way sex romp with a 15-year-old Catholic schoolgirl.
‘Did I win the Lotto?’ Reynolds was heard exclaiming on tape.
While serving a five-year prison sentence, the disgraced Reynolds was convicted on unrelated bank fraud charges in 1997, including lying to Securities and Exchange Commission investigators.
He received another six and a half years, but President Bill Clinton later commuted his sentence when he still had three years left to serve.
