S.F. mayor to suspend sheriff sentenced in domestic violence case

Reporting from San Francisco -- A day after Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was sentenced in a domestic violence case, a somber San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee said he would suspend the sheriff — the first step in removing him from office for “official misconduct.”

After reviewing the city charter, evidence in the case and consulting with the city attorney, Lee said, he gave Mirkarimi an opportunity to resign. The sheriff refused, the mayor told reporters Tuesday, “and now I must act.”

“As public officials, our first responsibility must always be to fulfill the obligations entrusted to us by the people of San Francisco,” Lee said. “We must always be held to the highest legal and ethical standards. Sheriff Mirkarimi’s actions and the confession of guilt clearly fall below these standards of decency and good faith.”

Last week, Mirkarimi pleaded guilty to a single count of false imprisonment stemming from a New Year’s Eve fight with his wife, Venezuelan telenovela star Eliana Lopez. Mirkarimi, 50, grabbed and bruised his 36-year-old spouse, according to Dist. Atty. George Gascon, who had charged the sheriff with domestic violence battery, child endangerment and dissuading a witness.

Those three charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement, and Mirkarimi was sentenced Monday to three years of probation, 100 hours of public service and 52 weeks of domestic violence classes. He also was ordered to pay $590 in fines and fees. A restraining order will keep him from having contact with Lopez for the foreseeable future and prohibit him from possessing weapons.

Thirty minutes before Lee announced his decision, saying that Mirkarimi would be officially informed of the misconduct charges Wednesday, the sheriff told reporters he had no intention of resigning and looked forward to fighting to keep his job.

Mirkarimi met with the mayor Monday after his sentencing and again Tuesday, telling Lee that he took “full responsibility” for his actions.

“By doing so, I believe that I am still very able to be the sheriff of San Francisco and that at this time I do not plan to resign,” Mirkarimi said. “I do not believe that the conduct that I have taken responsibility for constitutes official misconduct within the meaning of the law.”

Mirkarimi would not, however, say what he was taking responsibility for — beyond causing his family pain, being arrogant and having a bad temper. Asked whether he had caused the large bruise on his wife’s biceps, seen on a video taken New Year’s Day by neighbor Ivory Madison, Mirkarimi said he would “let my wife speak to that.”

The high-profile family drama has transfixed San Francisco for nearly three months, longer than Mirkarimi has been sheriff.

Tuesday began with an opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle by Abraham Mertens, an attorney and Madison’s husband. The couple lives next door to Mirkarimi, Lopez and their son, Theo. In the opinion piece, Mertens said the last time he had spoken to Lopez was Jan. 4 — the day Madison called police on Lopez’s behalf.

“I recognized what I thought was Ross’ voice in the background as Eliana pressured me to destroy evidence and lie to the police,” Mertens wrote. “Then she repeatedly called Ivory, demanding that Ivory destroy the video, email and texts from Eliana about the incident.”

Mirkarimi called Mertens’ account a “complete fabrication.”

Then Lopez failed to show up Tuesday after scheduling a noon news conference to tell her side of the story. Instead, her lawyer appeared alone.

Attorney Paula Canny said she had been served with a cease-and-desist order by Mertens and Madison, demanding that she stop repeating the legal argument she had laid out in court: that Lopez had turned to Madison because Madison was a lawyer and anything said between them would be protected by attorney-client privilege.

Madison graduated from law school but is not a practicing attorney.

Canny said her client was considering legal action against her neighbors for calling the police to report the domestic violence incident. “Eliana Lopez feels attacked and used,” Canny said, adding that her client was “about to have a nervous breakdown, as am I.”

The whole process, she said, has been “oppressive and unfair.”

“Eliana Lopez is not afraid of Ross,” Canny continued. “She absolutely wants Ross to remain in office.”

Lee on Tuesday appointed Vicki Hennessy, a veteran law enforcement official, as interim sheriff. A city ethics panel now must make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors, which eventually will vote on Mirkarimi’s future.

maria.laganga@latimes.com