Daniel Patterson Calls it Quits, Resigns From House

State Representative Daniel Patterson resigned from the House today, before a vote on his expulsion could take place.

The House Ethics Committee unanimously voted this morning to boot Patterson, which was apparently enough of an indication for Patterson to just take off early.

"I have been forced to resign due to the fact that the House has become a very hostile work environment for me," Patterson says in his resignation letter. "Due to this I am no longer able to serve my constituents in the way they deserve."

Patterson's resignation takes place just a day after he issued a 19-page response to the investigation into allegations of wide-ranging misconduct, as Patterson addressed every single accusation in the report point-by-point.

Among other things, the report -- done on behalf of the ethics committee -- claimed Patterson routinely ignored House rules, "verbally abuses, assaults, and harasses" a bunch of people at the Capitol, is possibly violating court orders, may have written a Facebook post under the name of an ex-girlfriend to recant a domestic-violence claim made against him, and tried to trade sex for his vote on a bill.

Just an hour before House Speaker Andy Tobin accepted Patterson's resignation, Patterson took to Twitter -- where he's been routinely posting responses during the ethics investigation process -- saying the "Fix was in."

Patterson's decried pretty much every aspect of the investigation since day one.

Even on the day the ethics complaint was filed against Patterson -- February 27 -- he denied the allegations to New Times.

Even up to early this afternoon on Twitter, and in his actual resignation letter, Patterson still complained that the ethics committee gave the go-ahead to a call for his expulsion without talking to him, says there was no actual hearing held on the matter, and says he believes it's a violation of House rules.

Patterson's continued to insist that he deserves a full hearing with witnesses testimony and the whole bit, calling for "proper due process."

Some of his fellow legislators have said he's been given all the due process necessary.

Democratic representatives -- Patterson's former caucus-mates, before last week, when he switched his affiliation to Independent -- had been calling for his resignation for weeks.

Representative Campbell's one of them, and he's also been taking to the Twitter to opine on the Patterson drama.

"Is Daniel Patterson filming a new reality show at the Capitol?" someone asked Campbell.

"[P]roblem with that is that it implies he is somehow connected to reality..." he responded.

Another zinger from Campbell, in response to Patterson holding a press conference yesterday to talk about the investigation: "[A]re they charging admission to press conference? I ask because I've never been to a free circus before."

Meanwhile, Patterson still has some issues to deal with outside of the Capitol -- he's been charged with four misdemeanors over incidents involving his ex-girlfriend, to which he's pleaded not guilty.

Also read:

Daniel Patterson Rejects Accusations, Fellow Legislators Say It's Like Trayvon Martin Case

House Ethics Complaint Filed Against State Rep. Daniel Patterson After Domestic-Violence Claim