Vito Lopez and his Hour-of-Power

New York Times
by Thomas Kaplan
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.

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.

New York Daily News
And the political contributions have come from men AND women, many of whom are familiar that Lopez is facing sexual harassment charges, but are unconvinced he did them or that they were a 'bad thing.'
by Reuven Blau, Celetz Katz and Simone Weichselbaum
May 18, 2013

Assemblyman Vito Lopez is still a ladies’ man.

Scores of Brooklyn women ­ and men, too ­ contributed money to the Democrat’s City Council campaign even as allegations of sexual harassment swirled around him, new campaign finance reports show.

“He doesn't strike me as a type of guy who would do that,” said Diana D’Amato, a restaurant manager and longtime Lopez friend who contributed $2,500 on April 24.

“Everyone is innocent before they are proven guilty.”

Eve Sussman, head of the art collective Rufus Corp. in Greenpoint, gave Lopez $25, according to the campaign reports, filed last week.

Capital New York
by Azi Paybarah
May. 17, 2013

With the looming possibility that he might be expelled from the Assembly next week, Vito Lopez announced today that he will resign after 29 years as an assemblyman.

The announcement comes after the release of two independent reports detailed allegations of sexual harassment against as many as eight female employees, which led Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to call upon his colleagues to expel him from the chamber.

In a statement released this afternoon, Lopez said he felt "obligated" to finish the remainder of the legislative session which is expected to end on June 20, since he was "overwhelmingly" re-elected to represent Bushwick, Brooklyn this past November.

This afternoon, a spokesman for Silver said his office plans to continue the expulsion process, despite Lopez's plan to resign.

The spokesman, Michael Whyland, released a two-sentence statement. "Assemblymember Lopez should no longer be in public office. We will move forward with our resolution on Monday."

Wall Street Journal
by Erica Orden
May 17, 2013

New York state Assemblyman Vito Lopez, who was one of the chamber's most powerful members until he was ensnared in an ethics investigation that found he sexually harassed staff members, said Friday he plans to resign at the end of the legislative session in June.

Mr. Lopez, who denies harassing his underlings, said he was stepping down in order to run for City Council in November.

"I have maintained my innocence throughout this matter and I believe no criminal investigation should ever have been conducted," the Brooklyn Democrat said in a statement.

"I have made no secret that I intend to run for New York City Council in November, which requires me to resign my current term," he continued. "Nevertheless, because the citizens of my district voted me back into office last November by an overwhelming majority, I feel obligated to serve out this session of the Assembly."

New York Daily news
Despite the horrifying reports and calls for his the Assemblyman's head, Andrea Battaglia still supporting her beau.
by Stephen Rex Brown
May 17, 2013

She's Vito Lopez’s main gal ­ and unlike his fed-up former staffers, she complies with his dress code.

Angela Battaglia, Lopez’s longtime girlfriend, was seen riding in a silver Acura with the revolting assemblyman in Queens on Thursday.

She sported a short red skirt and high heels ­ the same type of outfit the 71-year-old Lopez pestered grossed-out female staffers to wear to work.

The extent of Lopez’s leering interest in other women was laid bare in a stomach-churning report released by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics Wednesday.

Around Christmas 2010, Lopez brazenly told his entire office he wanted to hang mistletoe over one employee’s desk “and give her a kiss,” the report reads.

The woman then suggested Lopez reserve his affections for Battaglia, 60, which only enraged him, the report charges.

In a Letter, State Lawmakers Demand Edits to a Sex-Scandal Report
New York Times
by Danny Hakim
May 8, 2013

ALBANY -- Last August, the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, said he welcomed an investigation into the Assembly’s handling of sexual harassment allegations brought by four women against one of its most prominent members, Vito J. Lopez.

The facts, he said, “will show that any decision by the Assembly to enter into any settlement agreement was both legal and ethical.”

Now, lawmakers appear to be having second thoughts.

The Legislature sent a letter to the state’s ethics commission and demanded that it extensively edit an investigative report into the sexual harassment allegations, removing details about how Mr. Silver’s staff handled the scandal, according to several people who have seen the letter.

New York Times
by Danny Hakim
April 30, 2013

New York State ethics regulators, frustrated that their report examining allegations of sexual harassment by Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez has not been released to the public, say they will disclose it themselves if the Legislature and prosecutors fail to do so shortly.

The pledge on Tuesday from the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics appeared to be a shot across the bow of Daniel M. Donovan Jr., the Staten Island district attorney, who is serving as a special prosecutor in a criminal investigation of Mr. Lopez, a Democrat from Brooklyn.

Mr. Donovan, a Republican, has blocked the release of the ethics commission report, citing his own continuing inquiry; he declined to comment on the ethics panel’s plans on Tuesday.

The ethics commission, which is new and seeking to establish its credibility, sent its review of the Lopez case, alleging violations of state law, to the Legislature in mid-February. But under the state’s byzantine new ethics law, the commission may not release reports about the Legislature until they are first turned over to lawmakers, who are then allowed up to 90 days to act.

The Politicker
by Ross Barkan
April 19, 2013

Lincoln Restler with a bullhorn at yesterday’s event. His mouth buried in a bullhorn, Lincoln Restler howled at the tinted windows in front of him.

“I see you didn’t bring your daughters to dinner!” the Democratic activist shouted at a slew of dark-suited men slipping soundlessly into the sumptuous Williamsburg restaurant.

“Ooh,” mumbled a grinning police officer. “That was a harsh.”

Though Assemblyman Vito Lopez, the ex-boss of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, never appeared at the small protest in Williamsburg yesterday, he was the sole reason for its existence. Mr. Lopez, accused of sexually harassing his staffers last year, was hosting his first fund-raiser for a potential City Council bid that has enraged many of the Democrats that he once dominated as Brooklyn’s power broker. Wielding their “Molester-Free Zone” signs and cutting slogans, Mr. Restler and his New Kings Democrats club sought to shame Mr. Lopez’s allies and demonstrate their strong opposition to his possible campaign. Mr. Lopez has denied all the allegations.

WNBC
by Andrew Siff
April 19, 2013

In one of his first public appearances since becoming engulfed in a sexual harassment scandal that cost him much of his political power in Albany, Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez held a fundraiser Thursday as part of a possible bid for a City Council seat.

Lopez said he was looking into whether he could raise money for a potential campaign. Guests paid between $100 and $1,000 to attend the event at a Brooklyn banquet ball.

The Democratic assemblyman filed to run for a City Council seat earlier this month, despite harassment allegations and a series of health problems.

The Politicker
by Ross Barkan
April 17, 2013

His opponents have announced a protest outside of his first City Council fund-raiser tomorrow, but Assemblyman Vito Lopez told Politicker he’s not rattled by their efforts.

“It seems like they’re putting a lot of time and energy into preventing me from running, even though I haven’t yet decided to run,” Mr. Lopez, the ex-Brooklyn Democratic Party boss facing allegations that he repeatedly sexually harassed staffers, explained earlier today. “You wonder–they’re a reform group–why would they want to spend energy to prevent somebody from running in an election? That doesn’t seem like reform.”