Mayor Ed Lee outraged at perjury accusations

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Two more hearings are scheduled next week in San Francisco as the suspended sheriff fights to get his job back. His attorneys are now accusing Mayor Ed Lee of lying under oath and are trying to subpoena witnesses, taking the case to a whole new level of vitriol.

"I think the Ethics Commission can see through this," Lee said. He is talking about the perjury allegations surrounding his testimony last month in the Ross Mirkarimi case.

The suspended sheriff's attorneys believe Lee lied on the witness stand and they are asking the Ethics Commission to issue subpoenas. "If he lied under oath he committed a felony in order to remove the sheriff for a misdemeanor," Attorney David Waggoner said.

During his testimony Lee said he never consulted with supervisors before suspending the sheriff. However, Building Inspection Commissioner Debra Walker says Supervisor Christina Olague told her that she talked with Lee. Olague denies that and finds the growing drama, in her words, "exhausting and shocking." "I did not have conversations with him about this, prior to any of it," Olague said.

Olague, Walker, former Supervisor Aaron Peskin and businessman Walter Wong are all on Mirkarimi's subpoena wish list. Peskin says Wong told him of a back door deal with the mayor to offer the sheriff another job if he quit. The two making the perjury allegations, Walker and Peskin, are political progressives as is Mirkarimi, but his attorney doesn't think that's significant. "As to the political realities of moderates versus progressives, that is not relevant to whether the mayor lied under oath," Waggoner said.

Lee is outraged by the perjury talk and believes it's designed to distract from the facts behind his decision to suspend the sheriff. "The fact is he did hurt his spouse. He did admit to false imprisonment and the dissuasion of others and demeaning of witnesses, these are activities that amount misconduct. I don't think he deserves to be sheriff," he said.

ABC7 News learned that there could be a conference call Friday between the attorneys and Ethics Commissioners regarding those subpoenas. Mirkarimi's attorney is opposed to hashing the issue out in private on the phone, saying that it should be handled in public at the next hearing.

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ross mirkarimi, ed lee, san francisco bay, san francisco news, carolyn tyler

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