Special prosecutor to investigate Vito Lopez

ALBANY -- Opening up the possibility of criminal charges, a special prosecutor was named Friday to investigate allegations that Assemb. Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn) sexually harassed female staff members.

Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan was tapped to take the case after Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes called for an outside prosecutor, saying he couldn't pursue it because of his political ties with Lopez.

Also Friday, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman criticized a secret settlement in which $103,000 in taxpayer money was used to end some claims against the powerful Lopez -- even though Schneiderman's staff was consulted about the settlement.

Lopez has been at the center of the scandal since he was censured by the Assembly ethics committee for allegedly sexually harassing two employees. The controversy also has engulfed Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), who approved the $103,000 payment. Silver has indicated he did so because of the complainants' wish to remain anonymous, but now says that he erred and that the Assembly was changing its policy on such settlements.

The state Joint Commission on Public Ethics has launched an inquiry into the allegations and the settlement, sending letters to numerous state offices directing them to preserve all documents related to the matter.

Hynes said he learned that some of the alleged acts occurred in Kings County, which would give his office jurisdiction. However, Lopez's role in his political campaigns presented a conflict, he said, so he sought a special prosecutor.

Fern Fisher, an administrative judge in New York City, appointed Donovan late Friday, said Hynes spokesman Jerry Schmetterer.

Lopez has denied the allegations and resisted calls for his resignation. He was stripped of his Assembly housing committee chairmanship and has said he will not seek re-election as chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic committee.

Schneiderman joined a growing chorus criticizing Silver's handling of the settlement of the earlier harassment allegation.

"If true, the actions of Assemblyman Lopez are reprehensible, and the decision of the Assembly to keep secret the provision of and even the existence of a settlement agreement was wholly inappropriate and contrary to the public interest," Schneiderman said in a statement.

Silver declined to comment.

An attorney from Schneiderman's office reviewed early drafts of the settlement and on May 30 provided an Assembly lawyer with a model settlement that did not include a confidentiality agreement. "Our office policy requires that agreements of this kind do not include confidentiality provisions," Schneiderman said in his first statement on the settlement.

According to a draft of the settlement, lawyers for the two female employees initially sought $1.2 million before settling.