Former Assemblyman Vito Lopez, who championed the rights of tenants and the elderly but whose three-decade career crashed in a sexu꧑al harassment scandal, has died.
The longtime Brooklyn legislator fell ill Monday and was rushed to Memorial Sloan Kettering Medical Center, where he passed away that night.
He was 74 and had been battling leukemi꧋a for years.
Lopez, who also served as Brooklyn Democratic leader, was one of the most powerful officials in🧜 the state until two female staffers accused him of sexual harassment in 2012.
He denied the charges, but an ethics panel backed up claism by the women that he touched them inappropriately and made suggestive remarks.
He resigned from the Legislature in 2013 under the ꧂threat of expulsion.
His attempt at a political comeback b🎉y runninꦰg for City Council failed.
In a sign of how far he’d fallen, Gov. Cuomo, Mayor de Bla🐠sio and Asse𝕴mbly Speaker Carl Heastie did not issue a statement by midday to acknowledge Lopez’s passing.
Lopez cut h🧜is teeth as a community activist and began assembling an empire when he founded the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, a non-profit th🉐at provided services to seniors primarily in Bushwick, Brooklyn and Ridgewood, Queens.
The group grew into a $120 million social services behemoth — and a power base for Lopez.
Brooklyn Assemblyman Joe Lentol, whose Brooklyn distric𝔍t bordered Lopez’s, said people should not forget the good Lopez did for꧑ his constituents.
“Just look at the housing he put up in Bushwick. He knew fundamentally that providin꧒g affordable housing for people was very important,” Lentol said.
Lentol said Lopez was an intense man, recalling that the time both were buddies and the other half they were barely on speaking terms.
“Vito was very fierce in his beliefs. He didn’t like when you disagreed with hi🐻m,” Lentol said.
Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman Frank Seddio, a 30-year friend, said he hoped Lopez would be remembere💮d for
“His legacy is the work he did for the poorest residents of Bushwick and Ridgewood, where thousands of people live in affordable housing on lots that were once burned out and garbage-filled,” he said.
“He was the foremost champion of affordable housing and a broad array of social services before they became the causes that they are today.
“As he faces the judgment 🍬on the value of his life, my hope is that all the good work that he did will outweigh the unfortunate way in which his career ended.”
L🍎opez’s lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt, said 𝓀his client was misunderstood.
“Vito was the opposite of his public persona,” Lefcourt said.
He re♛called how Lopez spent a lot time at the bedside of former state 🐲Supreme Court Judge Gustin Reischbach, who died three years ago of pancreatic cancer.