Mel Reynolds speaks after his sentencing hearing at the Dirksen Federal Building Thursday
A federal judge has handed former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds a six month prison sentence for failing to file tax returns, telling the Harvard graduate he'd "squandered" opportunities to become something better.
Thursday's sentencing comes some seven months after U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman found Reynolds guilty in a bench trial on four misdemeanor counts.
Melvin Reynolds, 66, a former Democratic congressman from IL between 1993 and 1995, was found guilty last year on four counts of willfully failing to file a federal income tax return for the years 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
While serving his sentence for the statutory rape conviction, Reynolds was convicted on a series of charges that included bank fraud, misusing campaign funds and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission.
Earlier, Reynolds asked the judge for a year of probation.
"I'm going to do this, and I'm going home - to Africa", Reynolds told reporters after the sentence, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. "It's life. It wasn't a violent crime".
That's when Reynolds, a MS native who grew up in Chicago, first mentioned his plans to move to Africa. He has to report to prison on August 1.
Reynolds, whose awesome rise from poverty to become a Rhodes Scholar, Harvard grad and then congressman was matched by an equally fantastic fall from grace during the 1990s, had sought probation.
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Reynolds will serve four months in prison since he already served two months in custody, prosecutors' spokeswoman Kim Nerheim said by telephone.
"The question is, How long does a person have to pay for mistakes?"
Reynolds had entered a consulting agreement to hunt for business opportunities in Zimbabwe on behalf of two prominent Chicago-area businessmen, Elzie Higginbottom and Willie Wilson.
Reynolds successor, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., a Democrat who represented the IL 2nd congressional district from 1995 to 2012, pleaded guilty to corruption charges in 2013 for using campaign money to buy more than $750,000 worth of luxury items, collectibles and clothes.
Reynolds is expected to begin serving his sentence on August 1.
His two previous convictions stemmed from his time in Congress: the first in state court in 1995 for having sex with an underage campaign worker and the second in federal court in 1997 on campaign and bank fraud charges.
As the sentencing hearing was winding down, Gettleman told Reynolds: "I really hope this is the last time you have to stand before a judge".
In 2014, Reynolds was arrested in Zimbabwe for possessing pornography, which is illegal in the African nation.
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