One woman who worked for Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez said she contracted pink eye after he pressured her to put drops in his eyes. Another woman described being repeatedly groped by him until he forced his hands up her legs. Several employees said Mr. Lopez told them to wear low-cut blouses and high heels, or stay in hotel rooms with him overnight. Two women were so repulsed that they began secretly taping their interactions with Mr. Lopez.

State ethics regulators on Wednesday released a report that offered a scathing assessment not just of Mr. Lopez but also of the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, and his staff. The report said the Assembly’s leadership shielded Mr. Lopez, a Brooklyn Democrat who was one of the chamber’s most powerful members, from public scrutiny amid allegations against him by his staff of sexual harassment.

The report accuses Mr. Silver’s senior staff members of ignoring the Assembly’s own internal rules by failing to investigate and refer the initial harassment allegations to an Assembly ethics committee. Mr. Silver’s press office also appears to have made statements that were not candid, according to internal exchanges detailed in the report. And the staff went to lengths to keep the matter secret. “Money flow and our desire to keep this away from media scrutiny complicates the resolution of this matter,” Bill Collins, a senior Assembly lawyer, wrote in an e-mail.

The Assembly even failed to comply fully with a subpoena issued by its own internal ethics committee, the report said.