ALBANY – Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver yesterday publicly reprimanded a Buffalo-area lawmaker for a steamy affair he carried on with an intern and ordered him to steer clear of student aides.
The rare rebuke followed a unanimous ruling by the Assembly’s Ethics Committee that Assemblyman Sam Hoyt (D-Buffalo) had an “inappropriate personal relationship” several years ago with a young woman who worked for another upstate Assembly member.
The affair came to light last month after a Western New York political blogger posted a handful of lurid e-mail exchanges between the married Hoyt, 46, and the woman, who was 23 at the time.
One missive, titled “what I wish,” contained a list of Hoyt’s desires for the woman, including “that I could be your human lollipop.”
“I am deeply disturbed and disappointed by the actions of Assemblyman Hoyt,” Silver said.
The bipartisan Ethics Committee, however, found Hoyt had not explicitly broken any rules.
A rule banning fraternization between interns and Assembly members took effect in May 2004, after the woman had become a full-time staffer.
“I look forward to putting this matter behind me and to continuing my work focusing on the enormous problems facing my district and the entire state of New York,” Hoyt said in a statement.