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SF's Top Law Enforcement Disagree With Eliana Lopez

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— In a piece published by the San Francisco Chronicle, Eliana Lopez— the wife of suspended sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, said her voice was considered irrelevant and ignored by authorities when a neighbor reported their new year's fight to police.

The city's top law enforcement officers take issue with those claims and the fact that she wrote in the opinion piece that the domestic violence charges against her husband were trumped up.

Lopez contends that fight was mischaracterized and then used to remove Mirkarimi from office. Police Chief Greg Suhr said that's not what happened at all.

KCBS' Barbara Taylor Reports:

"We investigated objectively and exhaustively. We put a case together and presented it to the district attorney for a decision," said Suhr.

District Attorney George Gascon ultimately decided to charge the sheriff with three misdemeanor counts related to domestic violence. Mirkarimi later agreed to plead guilty to false imprisonment which prompted his suspension by Mayor Lee

Gascon stands by his own actions.

"There was ample evidence in this case to establish criminal conduct and we believe that we have received a just outcome," Gascon said.

Still, Lopez insists that what happened to her family and her husband was wrong and said just as domestic violence is to be condemned, so too is twisting an emotionally-charged argument into a reason for removing an elected official from office.

Lopez is currently in Venezuela with her son visiting her ailing father while the suspended sheriff awaits a hearing before the Board of Supervisors to determine whether his removal should be permanent.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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