Panel Finds Rep. Savage Made Improper ‘Sexual Advances’

The House Ethics Committee concluded that Rep. Gus Savage (D-Ill.) made improper “sexual advances” to a female Peace Corps volunteer in Zaire last March, according to a copy of the panel’s report obtained Thursday.

The unreleased report, obtained by the Associated Press, said the committee would not take further action because Savage had written a letter of apology to the woman, who was not identified by name.

The report said Savage’s behavior was “contrary” to a House rule requiring members’ conduct to “reflect creditably” on the legislative body.

An account of an interview with the woman quoted her as saying Savage, in the course of an evening, forced kisses on her, pawed her and “asked her to have sex with him” on three occasions, but she was “not responsive.”

Savage, a black lawmaker from Chicago, contended in a House speech that the committee was declining to pursue the case and said he received “not even a slap on the wrist.”

He described the allegations against him as a “racist attack” by white government officials and white-owned news media, and did not mention the letter of apology.

The committee chairman, Rep. Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles) refused to comment on Savage’s remarks.

“The committee clearly disapproves of Rep. Savage’s conduct” in the trip last March, the report said. “Based upon its review of available information and the congressman’s Nov. 20, 1989, letter of apology, the committee believes that Rep. Savage did, in fact, make sexual advances to the Peace Corps volunteer.”

The report added that Savage “has acknowledged that he may have acted inappropriately as evidenced by his letter.”

The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct--the ethics panel’s formal name--said it was placing other House members “on notice” that similar conduct would be viewed “with the clear possibility that additional action might be pursued.”

The committee considered allegations that Savage assaulted the female Peace Corps volunteer while on an official trip to Zaire last March.

The worker contended that Savage fondled her for more than two hours in the back of a chauffeur-driven embassy car in Kinshasa, the country’s capital, according to several government officials.

A House source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Peace Corps worker “was unwilling to testify. She did not want to pursue it.”