But today Reynolds is the one crying racism. He faces a 20-count indictment charging that he had sex with an underage girl, solicited lewd photos of another and then tried to obstruct an investigation. Federal authorities are also probing reports that he deposited $76,000 in campaign contributions into an unregistered account. Reynolds denies all wrongdoing: “If I were a white congressman with the same background would the same thing have happened?” he said. “I think not.”
But his fate rests more with the contents of telephone tapes than with the color of his skin. His problems began in June 1994, when a woman told police that in 1992, while she was a 16-year-old campaign worker, she had a long sexual relationship with Reynolds. Now, she said, he was calling her again. Investigators then monitored calls between the two. One source says the congressman relived the relationship in explicit detail: “One of these calls was like phone sex. He was getting off.” Reynolds also allegedly requested nude photos of the woman’s 15-year-old friend. When he learned of the investigation, officials say, he persuaded his accuser to leave the state and sign two statements contradicting what she’d told police.
Reynolds’s attorney, Edward Genson, says his client is being smeared by publicity-hungry prosecutors and argues that the tapes don’t prove anything: “Talk is cheap . . . you could indict anyone for talking on any 900 number.” Reynolds has called the girl “an emotionally disturbed nut case” and says he’s passed two lie-detector tests. Friends say he’s unbowed and still has his wife’s support. “He’s certainly not recalcitrant,” says one. “He’s not acting scared.”
Guilty or not, Reynolds may have been foolish to play the race card. “There’s the feeling that you can absolve yourself of guilt by screaming “racism’ loud enough,” says Reed. “That devalues the charge for those who have legitimate claims.” Somewhere, Gus Savage must be laughing.
