Florida House photo by Meredith Geddings

BRADENTON -- Democratic state Rep. Richard Steinberg abruptly resigned his Miami Beach seat Friday in response to a ”sexting“ scandal that followed a Secret Service investigation of unsolicited text messages the legislator sent to a federal prosecutor. The case went viral on the Internet leading a humiliated Steinberg to immediately resign his seat.

Earlier this week, the Miami Herald broke the story that Steinberg was under investigation after it was determined he'd been sending unsolicited messages to Assistant U.S. Attorney Marlene Fernandez-Karavetsos from an anonymous, web-based account. When he wouldn't comply with her requests to stop sending the sexually-charged messages, Fernandez-Karavetsos complained to authorities. Because of her position, the cyber-stalking fell under the jurisdiction of the Secret Service, who quickly determined that the messages were being sent from Steinberg's computer.

Democrats, who already hold less than a third of the House's seats, were relieved by the quick resignation. House Democratic leader issued a brief two-sentence announcement, saying only, ”Representative Richard Steinberg has submitted his resignation from the Florida House of Representatives. The concerns of everyone involved are in our thoughts and prayers."

Mrs. Fernandez-Karavetsos (37) is married. Her husband, George Karavetsos, is also a federal prosecutor and chief of the Miami U.S. attorney’s narcotics section according to the Herald. Steinberg (39) is also married. He and his wife have one child.

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Published Thursday, December 22, 2011 12:01 am