Luke Thomas/Fog City Journal

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi with his wife, Eliana Lopez

Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi's wife told a Venezuelan radio station the domestic violence charges filed against her husband are based on “lies” propagated by powerful, moneyed interests bent on removing the recently elected sheriff from office.

“He’s a progressive. He’s an innovator. And this is a low-down and dirty war they’re waging against him, involving his son and his family,” she said in Spanish in an interview posted Wednesday morning on the website of the Caracas station Noticias24. “I’m sure this is going to come out in our favor. I hope that the system is fair and clean, and it concludes that there was no domestic violence here, but rather political persecution.”

Mirkarimi, who was sworn in as sheriff Jan. 8, was arrested Friday on misdemeanor charges of domestic violence battery, child endangerment and dissuading a witness. Court documents show that police began their investigation on Jan. 4, after Lopez's neighbor, Ivory Madison, reported that Mirkarimi had grabbed his wife’s arm so hard during a Dec. 31 argument that he left a bruise.

According to a police affidavit, Lopez had gone to Madison's home on Jan. 1 and told her about the argument, which Lopez said began when she asked Mirkarimi if she could travel with their son to Venezuela to see her family. Lopez acted in several Venezuelan soap operas before moving to the United States.

Lopez told Madison that during the argument, Mirkarimi started to scream, "Fuck you, fuck you, you are trying to take Theo away from me," according to the affidavit.

Madison recorded video of her conversation with Lopez, according to the affidavit. In the video, Lopez displayed her bruise and said that Mirkarimi had abused her twice in 2011. "I'm going to use this just in case he wants to take Theo away from me because he did said that he is very powerful and can do it," she said in the recording.

But during her radio interview Tuesday, Lopez said that Mirkarimi had not abused her. Rather, Lopez said, she had merely chatted with her neighbor about an innocuous argument, one in which she and her husband had not even raised their voices.

“This person took the law into her own hands,” Lopez said. “I merely told her we’d had an argument on New Year’s Eve. And she used that against us, which made me suspect that there are powerful interests behind this. She’s broke. She has no money. No health insurance. You know that to live in the United States without insurance or income is a precarious situation. Now, we’re suspicious of her motive for calling the police four days after I spoke with her about a marital argument that was in no way violent.”

Lopez said that private investigators are now scouring Madison’s past for possible evidence that she might have been manipulated in some way.

Madison did not respond to multiple requests Wednesday for comment on Lopez's statements.

“This is a case of political persecution, and we Venezuelans know what that is,” she said. “Everybody believes that politics in the United States is very transparent. But it’s actually a bit cloudy — welcome to the USA, everybody. It’s very dirty, really, and there are many hidden interests at play. They don’t even mind attacking my child, even though I tell them: Enough.”

Mirkarimi was charged with child endangerment because Lopez told Madison the couple's 2-year-old son was present during the argument. But in the interview, Lopez denied her son was ever in danger.

Mirkarimi's first court appearance in the case is scheduled for Thursday.