Backers want due process for Conyers

At church rally, probe welcomed, not quitting

DETROIT — Prominent clergy, Detroit elected leaders and community activists said Monday they will go to Washington if necessary to demand due process for Rep. John Conyers, who faces allegations of sexual harassment from several former staffers.

Dozens of people attended a rally at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit.

“We don’t mind going to the White House, to the U.S. House of Representatives,” Michigan Rep. Sherry Gay-dagnogo, D-detroit, said. “We are demanding due process.”

The House Ethics Committee is investigating allegations of harassment and inappropriate touching by women who once worked for Conyers, including claims by Marion Brown, who could testify later this week before the committee.

Last month, Buzzfeed News reported that Conyers had settled a complaint in 2015 from a woman who alleged she was fired because she rejected his sexual advances. Buzzfeed reported that Conyers’ office paid the woman more than $27,000 in the confidential settlement.

Brown, 61, later publicly identified herself as filing the complaint and said the congressman propositioned her for sex multiple times over more than a decade.

Buzzfeed also published affidavits from former staff members who said they had witnessed Conyers touching female staffers inappropriately or requesting sexual favors.

Conyers denies the allegations and will fight them, according to his attorney Arnold Reed.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and a number of other colleagues in the House have called for the 88-yearold Detroit Democrat to step down.

But some speaking at Monday’s rally in Detroit urged him not to do so.

“The congressman has called for an investigation,” Minister Malik Shabazz said. “There will be an investigation and there should not be a resignation.”

Conyers first was elected to the

U.S. House in 1964. He is married to Monica Conyers who pleaded guilty in 2009 to conspiracy to commit bribery as a member of the Detroit City Council.

John Conyers has stepped aside as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. The committee’s website lists Conyers still as a member.

Paul Sancya The Associated Press The Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit Branch of the NAACP, speaks Monday at a rally in Detroit. Clergy, elected leaders and community activists are calling for due process in support of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-mich.,...