Lukens Vows to Stay in Congress During Appeal

Rep. Donald E. (Buz) Lukens (R-Ohio), rebuffing calls for his resignation, announced Friday that he intends to stay in Congress while he fights to overturn his conviction of having sex with a 16-year-old girl.

“I refuse to allow the lies and deceit of one delinquent individual to ruin me. I am now fighting for my life,” he said in a statement released by his office.

Lukens, 58 and divorced, was convicted May 26 of contributing to the delinquency and unruliness of a minor, a misdemeanor. The jury in Franklin County, Ohio, found him guilty of having sex with the girl at his Columbus apartment last November.

“My legal counselors assure me that prospects for a reversal in my case are excellent,” he said. “Only at that time will I make my final decision regarding any future political activity,” he said.

Vowing to prove his innocence, he declared: “I am not a quitter.”

Lukens’ statement made no mention of a report Thursday by a Columbus television station that another girl said she also had sex with Lukens, in 1985 when she was 15. The station said Lukens paid the girl for sex on five or six occasions.

WSYX-TV said the girl, identified only as “Paris,” had been sought by the grand jury to testify in Lukens’ case but was not found. Franklin County Prosecutor Michael Miller said the girl had refused to cooperate with the original investigation, and he did not plan to reopen it.

Conviction on the misdemeanor charge does not automatically preclude Lukens from serving in the House or seeking reelection. But Ohio state GOP Chairman Robert Bennett said Lukens will not be on the party’s ticket in 1990.

“I think he is a bad apple for the Republican Party,” Bennett said. “He has lost the support of the entire Republican leadership of his district.”

Don Birgel, chairman of the Butler County GOP in Lukens’ district, said Lukens should resign because “a party is known by the leaders it keeps.”