Ex-US Rep. Mel Reynolds wants to plead guilty in tax case
CHICAGO -- Former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds says he wants to plead guilty to misdemeanor federal charges of failing to file a tax return.
Reynolds says in a handwritten filing posted Tuesday that he wants "to come to court at the earliest time possible" to enter his guilty plea. A status hearing is scheduled for May 19. Reynolds is acting as his own attorney.
Reynolds was arrested April 11 at an Atlanta airport when he arrived from South Africa after failing to attend a hearing in the tax case. A federal judge ordered him to be taken into custody. He is being held at a detention center in Kankakee, Illinois.
Reynolds says he's been held in solitary confinement and protective custody, because of threats he says he received during a previous prison stint. Those threats, he says, were related to anti-gang work he did as an elected official. He says his situation makes it "impossible to prepare for trial."
Reynolds was previously convicted in 1995 after having sex with a 16-year-old former intern. He was charged in that case with criminal sexual abuse, child pornography and obstruction of justice. In 1997, while serving a state prison sentence, he was convicted in federal court on 15 counts of fraud related to illegal campaign fundraising.
His 6 1/2 year federal prison sentence was commuted by then-president Bill Clinton in 2001. Reynolds said in a previous filing that the gang threats were among the reasons he received the commutation.