John Conyers III, who was endorsed by his father on Tuesday to succeed him in the House, was arrested in February after his girlfriend suffered knife cuts during an argument.
Mr. Conyers, in an interview Wednesday, tried to head off a possibly disqualifying scandal just a day after his father resigned from Congress amid multiplying allegations of sexual harassment. As issues of sexual harassment and abuse roil Washington, any violent altercation against a woman could doom his effort to take the seat that his father held since 1965.
The younger Mr. Conyers said that the couple began arguing around 3 a.m. the day after Valentine’s Day and that after a physical fight, police arrested him on suspicion of domestic violence.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office later dropped the charges, but the girlfriend got a restraining order against Mr. Conyers, which remains in effect until March of next year, he said.
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