Metro

‘Gropez’ grillers’ new dog

ALBANY — The state ethics watchdog agency investigating scandal-scarred Assemblyman Vito Lopez is getting a new member.

LaShann DeArcy, a city Taxi and Limousine Commission appointee and a former scheduler for Rep. Floyd Flake (D-Queens), will join the 14-member Joint Commission on Public Ethics looking into tax funds that went to two Lopez sex-harass accusers.

Senate Minority Leader John Sampson (D-Brooklyn) appointed the civil litigator for Manhattan law firm Morrison and Foerster and one-time Air Force senior airman to replace his controversial first pick, Ravi Batra, who resigned after accusing JCOPE of illegal leaks and misconduct.

DeArcy has represented Cablevision and Madison Square Garden in an employment discrimination suit, bank executives in federal residential mortgage-backed securities cases, and hedge funds in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi-scheme scandal.