ALBANY – A combative Republican state assemblyman who voted against legalizing medical marijuana in
2011 was busted for pot possession yesterday, State Police announced today.
Steve Katz, who compared Speaker Sheldon Silver to disgraced Penn State football coach Joe Paterno for hiding a public payment to settle sex harassment allegations against Assemblyman Vito Lopez, was stopped for speeding on the Thruway on his way to Albany yesterday morning.
The trooper smelled marijuana and Katz, 59, turned over a small bag of weed, State Police said.
Katz, a veterinarian from Yorktown with a practice in the Bronx that lost its license last year, was elected with Tea Party support in 2010 despite reports of federal and state tax liens, animal abuse charges and settlement of a lawsuit involving sex harassment at his practice.
State Police stopped Katz at about 10 a.m. for going 80 miles an hour in a 65 mph zone northbound in the town of Coeymans.
The trooper smelled pot.
Katz “was cooperative and handed the trooper a bag of marijuana,” said State Police spokeswoman Darcy Wells.
Katz was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana and released on an appearance ticket. He’s due in Coeymans town court March 28.
“I am confident that once the facts are presented that this will quickly be put to rest,” Katz said in a statement today.
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