Alcee Hastings dead at 84: South Florida congressman who was impeached as a judge dies after cancer fight
SOUTH Florida congressman Alcee Hastings has died aged 84.
Hastings died on Tuesday morning, according to a longtime friend.
Back in 2018, the Democrat was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and underwent medical procedures during public appearances.
However, in recent days, Hastings had been in hospice care.
In the 2020 presidential election, the Democrat reelection to the US House in Florida’s 20th Congressional District.
Hastings crusaded against racial injustices as a civil rights lawyer during his lifetime and became a federal judge.
However, he was later impeached and removed from office.
Back in 2019, The House Ethics Committee was investigating the veteran rep’s relationship with his longtime girlfriend, who works on his staff.
The staffer was not identified, but news media in Florida reported that Hastings’ longtime girlfriend, Patricia Williams, served as a top official in his district office in Florida.
The committee was investigating whether Hastings violated a 2018 House rule that prohibits sexual relationships between lawmakers and staff.
In 2017, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a conservative watchdog group, included Hastings on its list of “worst ethics violators” of the year, citing Williams’ high salary and her relationship with the congressman.
Hastings dismissed any suggestion of wrongdoing at the time.
“This particular group can say or do what they want. But I’m not in violation of any ethics or law. Patricia has worked with me for 25 years,” Hastings told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 2017.
Most read in News
Another watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, complained about Hastings’ employment of Williams in 2012.
In a separate case, a former congressional aide was paid $220,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that Hastings touched her, made unwanted sexual advances and threatened her job when she refused him. Hastings called the allegations “ludicrous.”
The 2014 settlement with Winsome Packer, a former staff member of a congressional commission that promotes international human rights, was one of the largest secret settlements paid out in recent years by the congressional Office of Compliance.