Disgraced former NY state Assemblyman Vito Lopez has died.
Advertisement
Lopez died Monday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, where he had been treated for cancer for several years, his lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt, said.
Lopez resigned in 2013 after the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics found that he often groped, kissed, and said lecherous things to at least eight of his women employees, and once wondered aloud whether there was anywhere in the US he could legally have sex with a 14-year-old intern.
Content Preview This content is exclusive for Optimum, Time Warner, Comcast, customers with access to News 12.
In addition to holding his Assembly seat, Lopez wielded political power as the longtime chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party organization.
Mr. Lopez was respected and feared in Brooklyn, where his savvy, organizational acumen and ability to hold a grudge were legendary.
While he said many will remember Lopez for the scandal that ended his career, he should also be remembered for the positives he brought to Brooklyn, including an expansion of affordable housing.
Lopez cut his teeth as a community activist and began assembling an empire when he founded the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, a non-profit that provided services to seniors primarily in Bushwick, Brooklyn and Ridgewood, Queens.
He served as Brooklyn Democratic leader from 2006 before deciding not to seek another term in 2012 amid his scandals.
Seddio said Lopez had a “complicated” legacy.
Advertisement
Both men pointed to the work that Lopez did as chair of the Assembly’s powerful housing committee, but downplayed the accusations of sexual harassment that marred his last days in the Assembly and which eventually drove him from office. In Albany, he served as the chairman of the state Assembly Housing Committee. “It went form vacant lots and burned out buildings to having an enormous amount of affordable housing for people”.
