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State Sen. Dan McKeon tearfully announced his resignation from the Nebraska Legislature on Tuesday ahead of scheduled debate to expel him from the body after accusations that he made a sexually charged comment<\/a> to a legislative staffer and touched her inappropriately during a session-end party last year.<\/p>\n McKeon, a Republican from rural south-central Nebraska who had served only a year before his resignation, announced his resignation and apologized on the legislative floor just minutes before debate that would certainly have included harsh condemnation of McKeon.<\/p>\n \u201cMy words and actions were careless, regardless of the intent,\u201d McKeon said. \u201cI accept my responsibility for the impact of my words and my actions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis past year has humbled me. It requires reflection, listening and learning. Accountability is not only acknowledging my mistake but committing to grow from it. I take that responsibility seriously,\u201d McKeon said, his voice cracking.<\/p>\n His demeanor was a departure from what many of his fellow lawmakers found to be a defiant and flippant attitude toward the accusations leading up to his resignation. McKeon’s exit came a day after the 10-member Executive Board, the body’s governing board, voted unanimously to forward a motion to expel McKeon to the full Legislature for a vote.<\/p>\n The unprecedented move followed a complaint from the staffer who works for another lawmaker that McKeon approached her and another aide during a May 29 party and engaged in small talk about everyone’s vacation plans. The woman said McKeon told her she should \u201cget laid\u201d on her vacation and patted her on her buttocks. McKeon has countered that he \u201cmade a bad pun,” telling the woman she and her spouse should \u201cgo to Hawaii and enjoy a Hawaiian lei,\u201d according to McKeon’s attorney.<\/p>\n McKeon also countered that he patted the staffer on the back and may have accidentally brushed her rear end, but insists that if he did, it was unintentional.<\/p>\n McKeon’s departure comes as more attention has focused on sexual harassment within state legislatures<\/a> nationwide \u2014 including in Nebraska. The accusations against McKeon came about 15 months after the body was thrown in chaos when another Republican state lawmaker, former Sen. Steve Halloran, read a graphic account of rape<\/a> from a bestselling memoir on the floor of the Legislature in which he repeatedly invoked the name of a fellow lawmaker, making it appear as if that lawmaker was the subject of the assault. <\/p>\n