U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey announced on Friday that he would resign his job as the top federal prosecutor in South Florida effective May 31.

The surprise announcement came as Coffey was embroiled in a controversy over reports that he bit a stripper at a nightclub in south Dade County in February.

Rumors about the alleged incident have swirled through South Florida legal and law enforcement circles since March.

Coffey, U.S. attorney in Miami since 1993, was summoned to Washington for a Thursday afternoon meeting with Attorney General Janet Reno to discuss the incident.

He announced his resignation a day later.

"The decision to leave is the most painful and difficult choice of my life," Coffey, 43, told tearful staff members in Miami. "But leave I must, because my family has already paid too great a price for the sacrifices that accompany public service."

He added, "With the allegations recently raised and pending, I now have concerns about the possible impact on the important work of my office."

Some political observers suggested that Coffey's resignation was prompted by either Reno or the White House to prevent the nude-bar allegation from becoming an election-year issue.

Presumptive Republican nominee Bob Dole has criticized appointments by President Clinton to the federal bench, and recently has expanded his attacks to Clinton-appointed U.S. attorneys in Arizona and California.

Coffey declined to discuss his meeting with Reno. He also said he was barred by the Justice Department from talking about the alleged incident with the stripper at the Lipstik Adult Entertainment Club.

The husband of the dancer said he was "shocked" that Coffey resigned. "I want to see him reinstated," said the husband, who asked that he and his wife not be identified by name.

"It wasn't necessary," the dancer said. "It is not what we wanted."

The husband and wife declined to discuss the alleged incident other than to say that Coffey paid $900 for a bottle of champagne and bit the dancer on the arm during a dispute in the club.

"He bit her, but not like a crazy man," the husband said. "But he did break the skin."

No charges have been filed related to the incident.

Coffey reportedly went to the strip club because he was despondent over the Feb. 17 acquittal of two suspected drug dealers in a major trial in Miami. Augusto "Willie" Falcon and Salvador "Sal" Magluta were charged with smuggling more than $2 billion worth of cocaine into the United States over 13 years. The acquittal was considered a major embarrassment to the office.

The stripper and her husband said they were surprised by the media attention to the incident.

"We were under the impression that this was water under the bridge two months ago. We agreed to an apology and that was it," the husband said. "He agreed that he would apologize personally."

The husband said Coffey had not yet made the personal apology.

In mid-March, when asked about rumors of the incident, Coffey told the Sun-Sentinel that they were completely false. Asked specifically whether he had been in the Lipstik nightclub on the night of the incident, Coffey said, "No." Coffey added that he had "never" been in the Lipstik nightclub.

Jack Thomas, the club's owner, agreed with the dancer and her husband that Coffey was in his club.

But he said he can't understand why Coffey resigned. "[The media) ruined this guy's whole political career, and for what?" he said. "It was a nothing incident."

Carl Stern, a Justice Department spokesman, said the stripper incident was reported to the Inspector General's Office on March 27. The next day several investigators were dispatched to South Florida, he said.

The investigation report was completed recently and reviewed by a deputy attorney general in Washington who brought it to Reno's attention, he said. Stern said the report examined whether Coffey's behavior was appropriate for a law enforcement official. Stern said he did not know the report's findings.

Longtime associates and friends of Coffey say the allegations are out of character for Coffey.

"Those of us who know him, know him to be a person of extreme integrity and dedication," said Stanley Wakshlag, a former law partner and friend.

Bob Burlington, a Miami lawyer, friend and former law partner of Coffey, said he thought recent media coverage of the stripper incident forced Coffey to resign out of a sense of duty to protect the integrity of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"It is just a damn shame," said Eddie Kay, a defense lawyer in Broward and friend. "He is one of the most decent men that I have ever known."

"I think ultimately he will be given high marks for his performance," said Bruce Zimet, a Fort Lauderdale defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor.

Zimet cited Coffey's beefing up the Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach branches of the U.S. Attorney's Office, and his emphasis on health care fraud as among his major accomplishments.

"He was growing in that job."