An Arizona legislator resigned Wednesday amid an ethics investigation into reports that he was charged with sex crimes decades ago, a sudden surrender just months after colleagues had called on him to step down over derogatory remarks he made about black people and immigrants.
The Republican state representative, David Stringer of Prescott, Ariz., came under fire in December after he told university students that black people “don’t blend in” to society like European immigrants and “always look different.” Mr. Stringer refused to resign even though members of his own party called on him to do so.
Mr. Stringer, who could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday night, told another local news outlet, Prescott eNews, in January that he had been falsely accused and that there was “no guilty plea, no conviction.” (Mr. Stringer, a lawyer, is an investor in Prescott eNews.)
After local news reports about the decades-old charges, two state legislators, one from each party, submitted complaints to the Arizona House Ethics Committee that prompted an investigation. On Wednesday, Mr. Stringer faced a deadline from the committee to hand over documents related to the Maryland court case, said State Representative Reginald Bolding, a Democrat who filed one of the complaints to the committee.
