A Panasonic video camera and a black iPhone were seized by police Wednesday from the home of Sheriff-elect Ross Mirkarimi’s neighbor for a photo of a bruise his wife allegedly sustained during a domestic violence incident and text messages about the injury, according to a police affidavit attached to a search warrant The San Francisco Examiner obtained Friday afternoon.
Scroll down to read the full search warrant affidavit.
As reported by The San Francisco Examiner late Thursday night, police sources said they were investigating an incident of domestic violence between Mirkarimi and his wife, Eliana Lopez, after a neighbor called police Wednesday about a New Year's Eve incident.
The female neighbor, Ivory Madison, called the police’s domestic violence response unit Wednesday and said Lopez was a victim of domestic violence on New Year’s Eve “and that she sustained a bruise to her upper right arm when Mr. Mirkarimi grabbed her,” the affidavit says.
Madison said she had videotaped the injury at Lopez’s request, but she refused to turn the video over to a police inspector because she “had promised the victim that she would not provide the video to the police,” the affidavit says.
That was when the police inspector obtained a search warrant to seize the devices.
The iPhone is said to contain text messages with Lopez “about the incident, her injuries, how the injuries were caused, and who caused the injuries,” the affidavit says.
The neighbor also said Lopez was hesitant to report the incident “due to Mr. Mirkarimi’s position in San Francisco government.”
The Police Department wrapped up its investigation Friday afternoon into the domestic violence allegations, according to police. The case was forwarded to District Attorney George Gascon to decide whether to charge Mirkarimi.
District Attorney George Gascón said earlier Friday before his office had received the case that once “the investigation is presented to us we’ll evaluate the case and we will do so as would do any other case involving domestic violence.”
One anti-domestic violence advocate said all the facts need to come out.
“While our heart goes out to the Mirkarimi-Lopez family we call on our City to do a full investigation,” Beverly Upton, executive director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium, said in a released statement. “We are proud to be part of a city that does not tolerate domestic violence, seeks truth, and creates an opportunity for healing.”
Mirkarimi, who has lived in The City for more than 25 years, was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2004 to serve District 5, which includes the Western Addition, Hayes Valley, Haight-Ashbury, Lower Pacific Heights and the Inner Sunset. He was re-elected in 2008.
Before becoming a supervisor, Mirkarimi worked for nine years as an investigator in the District Attorney’s Office.
Mirkarimi and his wife, who met in South America and live together in the Western Addition, had their first and only child together in 2009.
In November, Mirkarimi was elected as the new sheriff of San Francisco, taking the place of the retiring Michael Hennessey, who held the post for more than 30 years.
Hennessey, who endoresed Mirkarimi for sheriff, told The SF Examiner on Friday that he did not know anything about the domestic violence investigation.
Mirkarimi’s swearing-in is scheduled for Sunday.
SF Examiner Staff Writer Dan Schreiber contributed to this report.
