City Attorney fires back at Mirkarimi lawsuit

http://blog.sfgate.com/cityinsider/2012/04/09/city-attorney-fires-back-at-mirkarimi-lawsuit/?tsp=1

The mayor had every right to suspend Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi for official conduct, regardless of when he imprisoned his wife, the city attorney asserted Monday in a new court filing.

The case is set for hearing in San Francisco Superior Court on April 20.

Mirkarimi, who was sworn in as sheriff on Jan. 8, was charged with official misconduct and suspended from office by Mayor Ed Lee on March 21 — two days after he was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to attend weekly domestic violence intervention classes for a year after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor false imprisonment under a plea bargain agreement.

Prosecutors initially charged him with misdemeanor domestic violence battery and two related counts stemming from an argument with his wife on New Year’s Eve in which she reportedly sustained a bruise on her arm.

Mirkarimi has sued the city to get his job back, arguing that the city’s official misconduct statute has been misapplied because the crime to which he pleaded guilty allegedly happened before he was sworn in; he was a member of the Board of Supervisors at the time.