State Rep. David Stringer (R-AZ), who resigned his office Wednesday after the leak of his expunged criminal record listing child pornography charges, insisted in a Saturday Facebook post that he only left under duress from Republican leadership.
Stringer’s Facebook post appears to have been deleted, but the Arizona Republic reported on it at the time of its posting.
“What I will say is that the charges I faced in 1983 are as false today as they were 35 years ago,” Stringer reportedly wrote.
“More important than the unfairness to me is the denial of the right of my constituents to elect a State Representative of their choice,” he added. “The actions of the leadership of our state legislature in forcing me from office are deeply and shamefully offensive to free elections and democratic governance.”
According to the Republic, the state House Ethics Committee obtained the Baltimore police report of the alleged sexual crimes.
The charges stem from two underage boys claiming that Stringer paid them for sex.
All charges were expunged when Stringer entered into a probation before judgment agreement, entailing five years of probation and admission to a center for treatment of sexual disorders. Expunged criminal records are illegal to share, but the Phoenix New Times got the documents in error.
For a deep dive on the story of Stringer’s controversies and undoing, check out my weekly Prime installment here.
