Donald Edgar "Buz" Lukens (February 11, 1931 – May 22, 2010) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio. His political career ended in 1990 when he was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Six years later, he was convicted for accepting a bribe during his time in Congress.[1]
In 1966, Lukens won a seat in the United States House of Representatives, defeating Democrat James H. Pelley. He began serving in the House in 1967 (90th Congress). In 1968, Lukens won re-election, defeating Democrat Lloyd D. Miller. Lukens chose not to run again for the House seat in 1970. Instead, he made a run for Governor of Ohio.[2] However, Lukens was defeated in the Republican primary by Roger Cloud, who went on to lose the general election to Democrat John J. Gilligan.
Lukens was a supporter of California Governor Ronald Reagan's campaign for the Republican nomination for president in 1968.[2]
Lukens then was appointed to the Ohio State Senate, serving from 1971 to 1986. In 1986, Tom Kindness, who held Lukens’ old seat, opted to challenge U.S. Senator John Glenn rather than run for re-election. Lukens sought to take back his old seat, and defeated perennial Democratic candidate John W. Griffin. Lukens started serving this term in 1987 (101st Congress). In 1988, Lukens won re-election, defeating Griffin once again.
Sex scandals and resignation
On February 1, 1989, an Ohio television station caught Lukens on camera at a Columbus, Ohio, McDonald's restaurant talking with Anna Coffman, the mother of a teenage girl. Soon afterward, a grand jury brought charges against him of contributing to the delinquency of a minor because of allegations that he paid the girl $40 and gifts in exchange for sex when she was 16 years old. Further allegations had been made that the relationship with Coffman began when she was 13, but a grand jury declined to pursue further charges against Lukens beyond a single charge of "contributing to the delinquency of a minor".
On June 30, 1989, a jury in the Franklin County Juvenile Court convicted Lukens of the misdemeanor crimes of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and contributing to the unruliness of a minor for paying $40 to Coffman for sex in his Columbus apartment on November 6, 1988. A friend of Coffman's, a 19-year-old, accompanied her that day, but was not directly involved. The judge set aside the conviction on the first charge but upheld the second, for which Lukens received the maximum penalty, 180 days in jail and a fine of $1,000. The judge suspended all but 30 days in jail and half the fine, and ordered Lukens to attend sex offender programs and be tested for venereal diseases.[3] Bond was set at $100,000, which the judge declared "eminently reasonable for a man with no remorse whatsoever."[4]
Though Ohio's age of consent is 16, Lukens' conviction was under a misdemeanor statute that states that "no person shall... aid, abet, induce, cause, encourage, or contribute to a child or ward of the juvenile court (into) becoming an unruly or (delinquent) child."[5]
Lukens made an unsuccessful appeal to the Franklin County Court of Appeals. Of particular contention was the fact that Coffman had a considerable juvenile delinquency record (which included curfew violations, running away, and petty theft), but this record (as well as a psychiatric report) was ruled inadmissible. She lived with her mother, but was a ward of the Juvenile Court. Lukens' defense was that the juvenile record would show that Coffman was already a delinquent and not a reliable witness. The reliability of her testimony was already under attack, as there were significant testimony inconsistencies, a fact conceded by County Prosecutor Michael Miller.[6][7]
Refusing to resign from his seat despite the demands of the Republican leadership, Lukens lost the 1990 Republican primary—the real contest in this heavily Republican district—to state representative John Boehner, who would later become Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
On October 23, 1990, the House Ethics Committee voted to investigate charges that Lukens had fondled and propositioned a Capitol elevator operator.[8] Realizing his position was untenable, Lukens resigned from Congress on October 24, 1990.[9] In January 1991 he served nine days of the 30-day jail sentence handed down in 1989.[10]
House banking scandal
In 1995, the task force investigating the House banking scandal charged him with five counts of bribery and conspiracy related to actions he took while in Congress. He was accused of accepting a bribe of $15,000. He was convicted in March 1996 after a second trial, and sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Personal life and death
Lukens married Toshiko Shirley Jane Davis, a model 21 years his junior, in Columbus, Ohio in June 1973.[11] They divorced in 1983.[12] Lukens died of cancer in Dallas, Texas in 2010 at the age of 79.[2]
^"The appeals court discounted Tyack's [Lukens's attorney] contention that it was not possible to 'cause or contribute' to a child becoming unruly if the child was already unruly. Using an analogy, the court found that a person found guilty of polluting a river may not be the primary polluter but is still responsible for 'contributing' to the pollution." Columbus Dispatch, "Court Upholds sex conviction in Lukens case", June 13, 1990, Page 1A.
United States Congress House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (1990). In the matter of Representative Donald E. Lukens : a staff report of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred First Congress. Government Printing Office. OCLC23124032. – Read online (Archive)
