The San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium called a press conference on the steps of City Hall this afternoon, calling for Sheriff Mirkarimi to "step aside" while the investigation in to his possible domestic violence is going on. Adding to the drama surrounding the whole ordeal, several reporters and photographers who were on the scene this afternoon claim to have spotted Mirkarimi's wife Eliana Lopez in the crowd at the event, which was announced as a press conference earlier today.

As the Appeal reports this afternoon, photographer Luke Thomas (also editor of Fog City Journal) believes he spotted Lopez, seen in this photo he took at the event. Although the Appeal has been unable to confirm the woman's identity, over at the Weekly reporter Joe Eskenazi is certain he recognized Lopez despite the chunky scarf and oversized shades.

According to Eskenazi, the woman confirmed her identity before declining to comment on the matter, but the Appeal was unable to corroborate that fact with anyone from the Mirkarimi camp. Mirkarimi's lawyer, campaign consultant and spokesperson — all of whom have weighed in on the issue in the past — did not immediately return calls to the Appeal.

And as if this whole thing couldn't get any weirder, several Sheriff's deputies had to come down to ask the SF Domestic Violence Coalition to move their press conference off of the City Hall steps because they didn't have a permit. As the Appeal's Chris Roberts reports:

'This is coming from upstairs,' one deputy said, dismissing any possibility of an ironic joke, before clarifying, 'from the office of the Sheriff.'

Read the whole report, over on the Appeal Meanwhile, the District Attorney is expected to file misdemeanor charges against Mirkarimi sometime Friday.

[SFWeekly]

Update: Mirkarimi's attorney Robert Waggener told the Appeal that Mrs. Lopez, "was on her way to see her husband and saw the press conference, protest, whatever you want to call it, and stopped to sit and watch it for a minute or two. That's what happened." It could be, as one SFist commenter points out, a very bad case of wrong place at the wrong time.