Mirkarimi team pursues probe against Lee
Attorneys for suspended San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi have submitted sworn statements from Aaron Peskin and Debra Walker to the Board of Supervisors, hoping the force of oath will lead to an investigation into the lawyers’ allegations that Mayor Ed Lee lied about key elements of the case in his testimony to the city Ethics Commission.
“So far both the Ethics Commission and the district attorney have taken a pass, but you would think that with sworn statements from a city official and a former city official, it might be incumbent for someone to investigate,” said Mirkarimi attorney Shepard Kopp.
First up is Peskin, the former Board of Supervisors president, who under penalty of perjury repeated his assertion that he was approached in March by Walter Wong, a businessman known for expediting development projects through City Hall and
a friend of Lee, Mirkarimi and Peskin.
“Wong told me he was approaching me on behalf of Mayor Lee, to ask if Mirkarimi might step down in return for another job, either in or outside City Hall,” Peskin said.
Peskin says the conversation at Caffe Trieste happened March 19, two days before Lee moved to oust Mirkarimi for his conviction on a charge of false imprisonment. The sheriff pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor in connection with a Dec. 31 argument he had with his wife, in which he grabbed her arm hard enough to leave a bruise.
Mirkarimi sent back a reply to Lee via Peskin and Wong that he might be willing to take an undersheriff job, Peskin says. The mayor’s answer supposedly came back through Wong — no dice, Peskin said.
Wong later texted Peskin saying that “our friend wanted me to tell u no matter what outcome w ur negotiations he is appreciate ur help.”
In an interview Tuesday, Wong said he had suggested to Peskin the possibility of finding another job for Mirkarimi, “at the airport or somewhere like that.’’
However, Wong said, “I never talked to the mayor or anyone on his staff about it. It was just something between me and Aaron.”
Peskin’s story runs counter to Lee’s sworn testimony before the Ethics Commission, in which he said he had never offered Mirkarimi another post in return for leaving the sheriff’s office quietly.
Also filing a sworn statement with the supervisors was Walker, a member of the Building Inspection Commission and a friend of Mirkarimi’s, who repeated her assertion that Supervisor Christina Olague had told her she discussed the case with the mayor before Lee moved to oust the sheriff.
The statement by Walker centers on a March 6 conversation she said she had with Olague, with whom she was friends at the time.
According to Walker, Olague “said that the mayor had asked her about the case when they were discussing other issues.” Olague said her advice had been to ask for Mirkarimi’s resignation, but if he refused, he should stay on as sheriff, according to Walker.
“Supervisor Olague told me if asked, she would deny the conversation happened,” Walker said.
Olague has said no such conversation took place, and Lee testified before the Ethics Commission that he had never discussed the Mirkarimi affair with any supervisor.
The attorneys are asking the supervisors — who must decide if Mirkarimi should be permanently removed from office — to subpoena Peskin, Walker and Wong to testify under oath.
“This is clearly another desperate attempt to distract from the real issue,” said Christine Falvey, Lee’s press secretary. “Ross Mirkarimi committed a crime and admitted to it.” School haze: The arrest of Santa Clara elementary school principal Eric Lewis in a San Francisco drug sting underscores a widely recognized problem — methamphetamine use among gay men, particularly here in the city.
Lewis, 42, who lives in the Mission District, was arrested Thursday at the downtown Caltrain station on charges of furnishing methamphetamine and GHB, a daterape drug, to an undercover drug officer. The officer had contacted Lewis through a gay dating website after receiving a tip that the Montague Elementary School principal might be involved in drugs.
Five years ago, a San Francisco mayoral task force concluded that more than 10,000 of the city’s estimated 54,000 gay and bisexual men used meth.
Michael Siever, behavioral health director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Stonewall Project, says antimeth campaigns launched in response to the problem have not “resulted in people doing less,” but rather “being more secretive about it.’’
It’s a real concern, Siever said, because meth usage in the gay community has historically been connected to risky sexual behavior and HIV transmission.