Arizona State Rep. David Stringer Investigated For Sex Crimes, Resigns

Arizona Rep. David Stringer resigned Wednesday amidst an investigation of sex charges against him, and into his comments on race and immigration. Stringer, a Republican, was given a deadline of 5 p.m. Wednesday (8 p.m. EDT) to hand in documents the House Ethics Committee had demanded regarding a 1983 sex crime case against him.

His lawyer, Carmen Chenal, said Stringer would not comply with the committee's demands and asked a judge to block his expulsion from the Legislature. However, he withdrew his request to the judge before the matter was heard. He submitted his resignation an hour before the deadline.

Stringer’s letter only had one line, “This is to confirm my resignation as State Representative for Legislative District 1, effective 4 p.m. this date, March 27, 2019.”

“I’m grateful that the House will not be forced to take action against one of our members, and we can begin to put this matter behind us,” Republican House Speaker Rusty Bowers said while announcing Stringer’s resignation.

Among the charges filed against Stringer over three decades ago were those of child pornography and patronizing prostitutes in Maryland. However, the charges were later expunged, i.e., the records of the case were erased. Stringer said he was never convicted of the crimes.

“There is no guilty plea, no conviction. I have no record, I have done nothing wrong,” Stringer had said in January.

An investigation into whether Stringer had disclosed the expunged conviction at the time of his application for an Arizona law license in 2004 was closed earlier this month. An investigator said that Stringer’s application materials no longer existed and that the District of Columbia had not disciplined Stringer following the charges of 1983. He also refused to hand over any documents, including a letter to or grant an interview to the investigators of the Ethics Committee.

The Committee was also investigating the Republican from Prescott for his comments in June last year. A video of his speech that went viral on social media showed him saying, “there aren’t enough white kids to go around” during a discussion on assimilation and integration in schools. He faced severe criticism for his comment but was still re-elected during the November mid-term election.

After the election, while speaking to students from the Arizona State University, Stringer reportedly said “African-American students don’t blend in.” He then also said children of Somali immigrants didn’t look like “every other kid”, referring to earlier European immigrants. While he later apologized for his language, his comments still had people demanding his resignation at the time.

“His actions were unbecoming of a state legislator, and racism should have no place in the House of Representatives. The evidence that he was trying to withhold from the Ethics Committee must be damning since he chose to quit rather than comply with the subpoena,” Rep. Reginald Bolding, a Democrat who filed one of the two complaints of racism against Stringer, said.

Once the resignation was handed to him, Bowers said that the resignation ended the House Ethic Committee’s investigation against him. “While the Ethics Committee will not release a formal report on the investigation, it will release public documents gathered over the course of the investigation as soon as possible,” Bowers said in a statement Wednesday.

Stringer's resignation ended the Republican majority in the House until he is replaced, which by law, must be by another Republican.