Here's a transcript. Mirkarimi's voice was cracking much of the time, and several times he sounded like he was on the verge of tears:
I deeply and humbly apologize for my behavior and the pain it caused to my wife and son, to my colleagues, to the San Francisco Sheriff's dept, and to the people of San Francisco.
For what happened on Dec 31, there are no excuses, and I accept full responsiblity.
It is through my shame and the ordeal that I caused... (pause)...in not being able to see my wife, to only see my son on an average of two hours a day, and the very public reminder I am not the person that I thought I was, provides for a dark world where my flaws stand bright. Some time ago, I started counseling to address my arrogance and anger issues. I look forward to the additional counseling that I will be receiving and the couples counseling that my wife and I sought during this ordeal but was denied and hoping that we'll eventually undergo.
I so badly want to reunite with my family and rebuild with my wife. I cannot tell you how much I miss her; our intimacy, our laughter. My son, who is the light of my life, Theo, who is soon to be three years old, smarter than his years appear, asked me after our two-hour visit, when am I coming home. It puts things in perspective. I know how deeply I have let the people down. What happened shouldn't have happened, and I am eternally, deeply sorry...
This ultra mea culpa must have been good enough for San Francisco D.A. George Gascon. Last week Gascon said, in so many words, that he was concerned about a lack of sincerity in Mirkarimi's plea bargain because of comments he'd made publicly. After Mirkarimi's remarks today, Gascon said that Mirkarimi had assumed full responsibility and that he, Gascon, "wanted to take him at his word."
The concern of anti-domestic violence advocates, however, has not been assuaged...
Last week, the executive director of La Casa le las Madres Kathy Black told KQED's Mina Kim that "now that it's gone through the justice system, it needs to go through the political system, through the mayor's office,to be looked at to see whether it should go to the ethics commission."
Another advocate, Minouche Kandel, who works on domestic violence cases for Bay Area Legal Aid, said she thinks Mirkarimi should step down. "This is not the end of the story. This resolves the criminal case, but I think it remains troubling for the sheriff's department to be led by a person convicted of falsely imprisoning his wife -- the primary purpose for the sheriff's department is to imprison people, and here you have someone who's been convicted of false imprisonment.
Mayor Ed Lee has said he will make a decision as to "what options are available" to him under the City Charter after the sentencing. Those options presumably include suspending Mirkarimi for ethics violations and trying to have him removed from office, a messy process that would entail transforming the Board of Supervisors into a quasi-court to render judgment.
So now all eyes are on Lee, and Mirkarimi, apparently, is not going to take him off the hook by voluntarily stepping down...
More on the political aspects from Sunday's Chronicle:
