Not satisfied with having only heard from her via that open letter to the Chronicle, ABC 7's Dan Noyes flew down to Caracas, Venezuela to tape an interview with Eliana Lopez, the wife of suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi. She recounts the story we've already heard Mirkarimi tell of their New Year's Eve fight, but from her perspective, and she admits that she may, yes, maybe, be divorcing him.
As we've heard, Lopez is due back in the States, by court order, on June 16, unless a judge decides to allow her to again extend her stay. But ABC 7 wasn't about to wait that long. In the interview, Lopez says that her fighting with Mirkarimi began because she was heartbroken over not being able to share her motherhood with her family back home.
She insists that she never felt she or her son were in danger from MIrkarimi, and she downplays the grabbing of her arm even further.
And then we came back home and I say, 'OK, we cannot talk,' and he grabbed my arm and in the first moment I say, 'Stop.' He stop it. He react like, 'Oh my gosh,' and I said, 'OK, let's go inside.' ... He immediately ... when I said, 'stop,' he stopped.
Also, she has more to say about neighbor and key witness in the upcoming Ethics Commission ersatz trial, Ivory Madison. "She represent herself as a lawyer," says Lopez. And of the video they made: "She used the words 'this is confidential, this is your property." Well, that ship has sailed. As for whether she was considering a divorce back around the new year, or if she is still, she leaves that open. She says, "Maybe I will get divorced with Ross, but I am very close with him in this fight. This is about justice." She goes further to say that the political fight that could end with barring Mirkarimi from ever holding public office again seems fascist to her, and shouldn't happen all because he grabbed her arm.
Anyway, this is just the first of a two-parter, but we have no clue what they're going to cover in Part Two. Maybe more footage of her on Venezuelan TV? The who-would-you-take-to-a-desert-island question?
See the full first part below.
[ABC 7]
