A veteran Democratic state representative from Worcester resigned Wednesday just as a House panel was poised to recommend that he be disciplined as part of an ethics investigation.
Representative John P. Fresolo, who was first elected to the Legislature in 1998, submitted a one-sentence letter to the House clerk saying he was “currently unable to effectively serve my district and regretfully submit my resignation,” effective immediately. He said he hoped that a special election would be scheduled to fill his seat.
Fresolo offered no details as to why he was resigning, and the secrecy surrounding the investigation continued Wednesday.
A spokesman for House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said the speaker was in talks with Secretary of State William F. Galvin about scheduling a special election. “No member or officer of the House of Representatives pressed John Fresolo to resign,” said Seth Gitell.
Fresolo, 48, was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. The nature of the inquiry has not been made public, since the panel conducts its investigations in secret.
In the past, he has come under scrutiny for being one of the members who filed the greatest number of requests for per diem reimbursements, state payments that legislators may collect for commuting to and from the State House.
DeLeo’s office also said in March that a House employee had made allegations against a legislator. The speaker declined to say if Fresolo was the lawmaker involved. Last month, the full House voted to give the Ethics Committee subpoena power to look into the matter.
An official briefed on the investigation told the Globe Tuesday that the panel was poised to take action against Fresolo within days. On Wednesday, committee members either did not return phone calls or said they could not comment.
Fresolo, who served on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the $34 billion state budget, did not return phone messages Wednesday.
In an interview with the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, he said the House Ethics Committee had pressured him to resign. “I said that I was determined to fight, and I did try to fight as long as I could,” he told the paper. “It’s different now. I have been marginalized. I wouldn’t say I was treated fairly, but it’s a process, and I went through it and I am glad I did.”
Representative Bradley H. Jones Jr. the House Republican leader, said Wednesday that the Ethics Committee should forward any information or findings from its investigation to the appropriate authorities for further scrutiny.
“The necessary but overdue resignation of Representative Fresolo is an appropriate course of action, given the circumstances,” Jones said in a statement. “The residents of the Sixteenth Worcester District and the taxpayers of Massachusetts deserve representatives and a governing body that is held to the highest ethical standard.”
Fresolo told the Telegram & Gazette that he was proud of his work as a state representative.
“I really cared a lot for the people I represented,” he said, adding, “I know in my heart I never did anything intentionally wrong.”
Jim O’Sullivan of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@
globe.com.