Vito Lopez Fined $330,000 in Sexual Abuse Case ALBANY - Accusations of sexual misconduct have already cost Vito J. Lopez his job as a state assemblyman and his reputation. Now that misconduct will reach into his campaign coffers as well. A legislative ethics panel on Tuesday imposed a fine of $330,000 on Mr. Lopez, 72, a Brooklyn Democrat who resigned from the Assembly last month after a scathing ethics report outlined his history of sexual harassment of female staff members, which included groping and other unwanted advances. The fine is the largest ever issued by the Legislative Ethics Commission, and results from at least 33 episodes in which Mr. Lopez violated the state's Public Officers Law, according to a report announcing the penalty. A lawyer for Mr. Lopez, Gerald B. Lefcourt, declined to comment. The substantial fine is unlikely to hurt Mr. Lopez's personal finances, since he can pay the penalty using his campaign funds. But he is also a defendant in a lawsuit filed last week by two women who say he and the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, worked to conceal Mr. Lopez's behavior. Mr. Silver, a powerful Manhattan Democrat and a co-defendant in the lawsuit, has admitted to making mistakes in the handling of Mr. Lopez and the allegations against him. Secret payments to two other women who had claimed harassment had previously been authorized by Mr. Silver, who neglected to forward their complaints to the ethics committee, a violation of Assembly rules. He has resisted calls by lawmakers and from the editorial pages of some newspapers to step down, and said on Monday that he continued to have the support of fellow Assembly Democrats. Mike Whyland, a spokesman for Mr. Silver, said on Tuesday that the speaker supported the commission's actions and its fine. Mr. Lopez resigned on May 20. Neither he nor Mr. Lefcourt appeared at a June 4 hearing that resulted in the fine.