Lopez Says He Will Quit Assembly on Monday
By THOMAS KAPLAN
Published: May 18, 2013
Facing expulsion from the New York State Legislature over accusations
that he sexually harassed several female staff members, a once-powerful
assemblyman, Vito J. Lopez, said on Saturday that he would resign on
Monday morning.
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez has repeatedly denied the accusations of sexual harassment.
Related
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State Legislator Facing Expulsion Says He’ll Resign (May 18, 2013)
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Silver to Seek Lopez’s Expulsion From Assembly Over Harassment Claims (May 17, 2013)
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Report Finds Lawmaker Was Shielded by Leaders (May 16, 2013)
Mr. Lopez, who had said on Friday that he would seek to remain in office for five weeks before resigning and would then run for the New York City Council, announced his new plan in a one-sentence letter to the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver.
“I hereby resign the public office of Member of Assembly from the 53rd
Assembly District, Kings County, effective 9 a.m. Monday, May 20, 2013,”
the letter said, in its entirety.
Mr. Lopez’s lawyer, who has been acting as his spokesman, did not
respond to a request for comment on Saturday, and it was not clear
whether Mr. Lopez, a Brooklyn Democrat, would continue to pursue his bid
for the City Council.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat who on Friday urged
the Assembly to proceed with expelling Mr. Lopez if he did not step down
at once, called Mr. Lopez’s decision to resign immediately “the best
end to this ugly chapter.”
“As the governor said, one month was unacceptable, as was one more day,”
the spokeswoman, Melissa DeRosa, said. She added, “Now we must do
everything we can to ensure this type of behavior is never tolerated or
allowed to occur again.”
Mr. Lopez, who had wielded considerable power in New York and Albany as a
senior lawmaker and as the chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party,
has faced increasing anger since last August when Mr. Silver first
revealed that the lawmaker had been accused of sexually harassing female
legislative employees.
At the time, Mr. Silver censured Mr. Lopez
and stripped him of the privileges of seniority, but the furor
intensified after The New York Times reported that Mr. Silver had previously agreed to
confidential settlements with other women who had accused Mr. Lopez of
harassment. On Wednesday, a lengthy report by the state’s Joint
Commission on Public Ethics detailed the allegations by several women, prompting calls for Mr. Lopez’s expulsion if he did not agree to step down immediately.
The Assembly has not expelled one of its members since the 1920s.
On Friday, Mr. Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, circulated a draft
resolution that would begin the process of expelling Mr. Lopez; the
Assembly had planned to vote on the resolution on Monday.
Mr. Lopez, 71, was first elected to the Assembly in 1984. After
resigning, he will continue to receive an annual pension of $64,634.28,
which he began collecting in 2011 through a loophole that allows some
lawmakers to receive a legislative salary and a pension simultaneously.
The City Council seat for which Mr. Lopez has said he intends to run
includes parts of Bushwick and Williamsburg, in Brooklyn, as well as
Ridgewood, Queens, and includes much the territory he has represented in
the Assembly.
Mr. Lopez’s most formidable opponent would be a fellow Democrat, Antonio
Reynoso, the chief of staff for Councilwoman Diana Reyna. Ms. Reyna, a
Brooklyn Democrat, holds the seat but cannot seek re-election because of
term limits for city officials.
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