Metro

‘Horndog’ Vito staffers: Always dress down!

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Walk softly and wear a turtleneck.

Those were the watchwords around the Albany office of Assemblyman Vito Lopez, according to a former female staffer warned by a colleague to steer clear of the disgraced Brooklyn pol.

“He has a sense of viewing women as . . . individuals he can manipulate. They are a tool,” she said. “During times he was in conversation with staff, He would talk about his ‘days of glory’ [with women] that ‘he had a streak in him,’ ” she said.

That “streak” — which appears to be more seamy than Lopez let on — was exposed on Thursday when Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver punished Brooklyn’s Democratic boss after an ethics committee found he groped and harassed two female staffers this summer.

And ex-staffers and political insiders are now saying the committee’ findings point to a disturbing pattern of behavior that spanned years.

“It was kind of known that he was grabby,” said a female Brooklyn operative. “And if you wanted to work for him, you had to be cute. He likes cute women.”

What came as surprise was the forceful nature in which Lopez approached the women, the source said. “Vito has always surrounded himself with pretty young things,” an elected official from Queens said. “He always had young hipsters from his district working for him.”

The women questioned by the ethics committee are both in their 20s, according to a source with intimate knowledge of the situation. Both allege that Lopez made unwanted advances in June and July.

“This is very creepy,” said a former staffer. “This is disturbing.”

Though she said he never crossed the line with her, when she first started to work for the assemblyman, another female staffer warned her to “dress conservatively.”

At one point, he seemed jealous of her boyfriend.

“I thought he took a fatherly liking to me, but perhaps it was more,” she said.

Lopez’s current girlfriend, Angela Battaglia — a city planning commissioner who heads the Lopez-founded Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council — was engaged to be married and he persuaded her to call it off, the source said.

“It’s a power struggle. He plays games. He has to be front and center.”

Silver removed Lopez as chairman of the powerful Assembly Committee on Housing on Thursday, stripping him of all seniority privileges.

“You required them to write to you about how much they loved their jobs and cared about you,” Silver wrote. “You criticized their notes for being insufficiently effusive.”

Another source said this was standard fare for Lopez and something he required from most employees; some speculate that it was a way to arm himself in case one made future accusations against him.

Another political insider described Lopez as a “master manipulator who tries to intimidate everyone around him and break them down so he can control them.”

The insider has heard past allegations from Lopez staff members about similar incidents to the ones alleged in the recent complaint.

“There’s a pattern of behavior,” the insider said. “There are other women who have been affected in this way.”