At the end of his term in 2015 he was accused of sexual misconduct, which forced him to resign on January 12, 2016. He was later pardoned by the former governor of Puerto Rico, Hon. Alejandro García Padilla.
Political career
After serving 4 years at the municipal assembly, Arlequín Vega was elected as Mayor of Guayanilla in the 2000 Puerto Rican general elections. To win the seat, Arlequín defeated the incumbent Ceferino Pacheco Giudicelli, from the New Progressive Party. The margin of the win was 236 votes (1.8%) in favor of Arlequín. Like most mayors, he was sworn in during January 2001.
At the 2004 Puerto Rican general elections, Arlequín retained the seat winning by a wider margin this time (57.7% of the votes). His main rival was again Pacheco Giudicelli, who received only 39.3% of the votes.[2]
Arlequín Vélez was reelected two more times in 2008 and 2012.
On December 17, 2015, Arlequín Vélez was sentenced to four years in prison.[5] Soon after, and not happy with the verdict Edgardo Arlequín presented an appeal to his sentence to the Appeals Court of Puerto Rico. After this, the Party started conversations with him to voluntarily resign to his seat, but Arlequín initially refused.[6] On January 12, 2016, he finally presented his resignation.
On January 16 the Appeals Court granted him bail until his request to revoke the guilty verdict was clarified.[7]
On December 30, 2016, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro García Padilla pardoned Edgardo Arlequín Vélez, who was convicted in 2015 for a sexual misconduct and for violating article 4.2 of The Puerto Rico Office of Government Ethics.[8]
On December 4, 2017, Edgardo Arlequín's four-year sentence was revoked after the courts appeal system found him innocent of the same charges that led to his suspension as Mayor of Guayanilla in 2015 and eventually wrongfully convicted in the same year.