MEL REYNOLDS . . . SEX CHARGE BOGUS?

Attorneys for Chicago Congressmen Mel Reynolds today demanded that sexual molestation charges against him be dropped, after a man stood up in court and announced that the charges against the two-term Democrat were bogus. The man, who identified himself as Reginald Turner, said he was an attorney for a Reynolds campaign volunteer, now aged 18, who had claimed the congressman had sex with her two years ago, when she was underage. Turner said she has now recanted her allegation. He then read a statement that he said she wrote, which states in part that she had been coached by police on how to entrap Reynolds during phone conversations. Prosecutors initially discounted the statement, saying that they'd had never heard of Turner and had no immediate plans to drop the case. A former Reynolds congressional aide, though, told the Associated Press today that last summer Reynolds had talked about hiring Turner to represent his young accuser. Reynolds, a former Rhodes Scholar, was indicted in August on 19 counts of child pornography, sexual assault, aggravated sexual abuse of a child, obstruction of justice and unlawfully communicating with a witness.