Court documents reveal a neighbor has documented verbal and physical abuse and, according to the arrest warrant, this is not the first time the couple has struggled with domestic violence.
An affidavit included with the arrest warrant says Mirkarimi's wife gave a neighbor what one detective describes as a "free flowing" narrative of what she says was an assault on New Year's Eve. These details are coming out on the same day Mirkarimi says he planned to talk to his staff about the situation.
"I look forward to reporting to work and doing what I've been elected to do and I look forward to having my day in court," said Mirkarimi.
His day in court is set for Thursday and now we have a clue as to what exactly what he may be facing. The arrest warrant released Tuesday reveals details of the New Year's Eve incident when Mirkarimi is accused of bruising the arm of his wife Eliana Lopez. She went to neighbor Ivory Madison who took photos and recorded a conversation with Lopez.
According to the arrest warrant, on the way to a restaurant Lopez told Mirkarimi that after his inauguration as sheriff, she would like to visit her native Venezuela. Lopez says Mirkarimi began to curse, "F--- you, f--- you, you are trying to take Theo (their son) away from me." The document reveals, "The victim stated Ross Mirkarimi stated something to the effect that she didn't deserve to eat."
She says when they returned home he was pushing, yelling and grabbing her in front of their son. District Attorney George Gascon had alluded to more than one domestic violence incident when he charged Mirkarimi last week.
According to the arrest warrant, Lopez told her neighbor that she was abused, "two times in 2011 and this is the second time this has happened, I told Ross I want to work on the marriage, and we need help."
Earlier on Tuesday Mirkarimi's attorney, Bob Waggener, told ABC7 he hasn't seen the evidence.
"I do not have the police report, I don't have the video, I don't have the text messages. I have asked the district attorney's office to provide them to me. I have not received any response to that request," said Waggener.
Mirkarimi has been ordered to stay away from his family and some domestic violence activists think he should stay away from the job. They talked to the mayor yesterday.
"To really ask him to use his moral authority to help Ross take a leave of absence so the city could move on and the Sheriff's Department could continue its great work and its 30-year legacy of prevention," said Beverly Upton from the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium.
Publicly Mirkarimi's wife has said she has no complaints against her husband and that the incident was taken out of context, but the affidavit says Lopez told more than one neighbor that she was being abused.
Mirkarimi plans to keep on working and plans to aggressively fight the charges. If he is convicted of all three charges, he could face up to a year in prison and three years probation.
