In a court filing, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera argued today that he is qualified to handle the official misconduct case against the city's suspended sheriff, Ross Mirkarimi. (Read a pdf of the filing here.)
In papers filed Monday, Herrera rebutted Mirkarimi's April 13 contention that his office should be disqualified.
Mirkarimi pled guilty March 12 to falsely imprisoning his wife in a domestic dispute. Mayor Ed Lee responded by suspending Mirkarimi and launching proceedings to dismiss him permanently from office. In upcoming hearings, the city's Ethics Commission must decide whether to recommend to the Board of Supervisors that Mirkarimi be removed.
Mirkarimi's legal team argued that the city attorney's office should be disqualified (pdf) because it represents both the mayor and the commission.
But City Attorney Dennis Herrera wrote in today's filing that the city attorney does not have a conflict of interest because the city has hired a separate attorney to represent the commission, while the city attorney continues to represent the mayor and city government as a whole.