Vito Lopez Officially Leaves Office

This Jan. 14, 2013 photo, Assemblyman Vito Lopez sits during a session at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. A New York prosecutor decided Wednesday, May 15, 2013, that Lopez's behavior toward women on his staff was "alarming" rather than criminal harassment, but lambasted Albany leaders as too interested in protecting themselves and said their secretive, back-door behavior encouraged his inappropriate conduct. Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan said his office did more than 50 interviews but there was no basis to conclude a chargeable offense was committed. He also found no criminal activity in the secret settling and confidentiality agreements of some of the complaints made against Lopez, but sharply criticized Albany's handling of it. AP Photo/Mike Groll

NEW YORK—After serving the 53rd Assembly District in Brooklyn since 1985, Assemblyman Vito Lopez, 71, officially resigned his seat effective 9 a.m. on Monday morning.

Also on Monday, the former assemblyman’s website was taken down and photos of the empty nameplate outside of his office had hit Twitter and Instagram.

Lopez, who has been embroiled in a long-term sexual harassment scandal, resisted calls for his immediate resignation and planned to step down at the end of the legislative session on June 20. He had set his sites on a City Council run.

Lopez may not make a bid for City Council if his cancer-related health tests come back confirming cancer, according to an interview he gave the New York Post Saturday.

Calls for his expulsion before the end of the term came from the top down.

“There should be a zero tolerance policy when it comes to sexual harassment and we must now send a clear message that this behavior is not tolerated,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement Friday. In the same statement, Cuomo called for Lopez’s expulsion and said that he “should not spend another day in office, let alone a whole month.”

With the seat now empty, Gov. Cuomo will not call a special election to fill void for the remaining two months, according to an unnamed government source familiar with the matter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.