Suspended San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi's wife pleaded with him to use his "power" to try to stop a domestic violence police investigation of him in the early hours of the case, to which he replied in part: "I cannot," according to text messages between the couple reviewed by The Chronicle.

That exchange, as well as other text messages and days of phone records from Mirkarimi and his wife's cell phones, provide a compelling but incomplete glimpse into what the sheriff described as "a nightmare" as the couple attempted to deal with the fallout from a Dec. 31 altercation where Mirkarimi grabbed his wife's arm hard enough to bruise it. He now is facing removal from office for official misconduct.

The records, in particular, raise questions about what happened on the pivotal day of Jan. 4, when Mirkarimi's wife, Eliana Lopez, allegedly changed her mind about initiating a domestic violence investigation after an almost 40-minute phone call with her husband's campaign manager. At the time Mirkarimi was the sheriff-elect and still on the Board of Supervisors.

The phone records and related documents, which Mirkarimi's attorneys allowed The Chronicle to view, show that within half an hour of Lopez concluding a late-morning call with her husband's campaign manager, she texted a neighbor she had confided in, saying she would not report the Dec. 31 incident to the police.

That neighbor, Ivory Madison, told an investigator she felt the morning of Jan. 4 "Lopez was 99 percent ready to report the incident to police," according to court documents Mayor Ed Lee has filed in the case.

The allegations that Mirkarimi tried to dissuade witnesses and convince them to destroy evidence are among the most potentially damaging in Lee's effort to oust the sheriff - and the most unsubstantiated. Shepard Kopp, one of the sheriff's attorneys, on Tuesday called them a "red herring."

Lee's legal team declined to comment on the "accuracy of documents that were selectively released ... by defense counsel without having had the opportunity to review them," said Matt Dorsey, spokesman for City Attorney Dennis Herrera. Lee is seeking a court order directing Mirkarimi to turn over his cell phone records because he has not complied with a mayoral subpoena for them. Kopp, however, said Tuesday that they have offered to provide limited phone records and other information, but have gotten no response from the city attorney's office.

The mayor says it appears that Mirkarimi enlisted his campaign manager, Linnette Peralta Haynes, in first dissuading Lopez, then in trying to discourage Madison from cooperating with authorities, and that he secured Haynes' help "prior to learning of the existence of a police investigation," according to court filings.

Flurry of calls

There were a flurry of calls between Haynes and Lopez on Jan. 4 - the day Madison called police. But the week's worth of records reviewed by The Chronicle showed no calls between Mirkarimi's cell phone and Haynes' cell phone from Dec. 31 - the date of the argument with his wife - until hours after the police had been called. Mirkarimi, through his attorney, said he has not had a home phone for about two years and has always called Haynes on her cell phone.

The absence of mobile calls between the two during the stretch when he was allegedly enlisting her help in discouraging his wife and others from going to police undermines the allegation that Mirkarimi was trying to tamper with the investigation, his attorneys said.

They also pointed to the text exchange on the evening of Jan. 4, almost 2 1/2 hours after Lopez learned police have been called, where she urged her husband to have his ally, outgoing Sheriff Michael Hennessey, intervene, saying in the message: "You have to call hennessy(sic) and stop this before something happen(sic). Ivory is giving the investigators everything. Use your power."

Mirkarimi responded with: "I cannot. And neither can he. You have to reject Ivory's actions. We both do. I cannot involve new people."

'Contrived evidence'

Parts of that text message may be open to interpretation, but Mirkarimi attorney David Waggoner said it was clear Mirkarimi refused to use his position to influence a police investigation.

"The entire allegation of witness dissuasion or destruction of evidence is based on manufactured innuendo and contrived evidence," Waggoner said. Prosecutors, though, had included witness dissuasion among the three misdemeanors Mirkarimi was originally charged with in January. Instead, he pleaded guilty in March to one count of misdemeanor false imprisonment.

Days later, Lee took the rare step of suspending Mirkarimi and seeking his removal from office in an administrative process that is now before the Ethics Commission and ultimately will be decided by the Board of Supervisors.

Mirkarimi has refused to cooperate with the criminal and now administrative investigations, and his wife, who has defended him, maintains the mayor is pursuing a coup d'etat. In a Jan. 5 text, she refers to Madison as "my nuts neighbor."

But the day after the incident, Lopez confided in Madison and agreed to have her record a 55-second video documenting Lopez's bruised arm in which she cries and says "this is the second time this is happening" and that she planned to use the video if there was a custody dispute over their young son, according to court documents.

Changing her mind

The next day, court records indicate, Madison e-mailed Lopez saying "the most important thing is to call the police ... every time there is an incident."

Lopez replied: "I am (sic) agree with everything. I'm realizing how serious it is and I have to be very smart to protect (my son) and myself. I always believe in my instinct, and now I would like to run away." On Jan. 4, Lopez called Madison at 9:14 a.m., but the two didn't connect, phone records show.

Haynes later called Lopez twice, first talking just over a minute, then having a nearly 40-minute call starting at 11:18 a.m., the records show.

At 12:24 p.m., Lopez sends Madison a text saying: "Hello Ivory, I'm not going to call the police. I'm going to open a record with my doctor."

A minute later, according to police records, Madison calls the police domestic violence unit, which triggered the investigation. Madison told the city attorney's office that she didn't read that text until later.

The content of the lengthy call between Haynes and Lopez is unknown. Lopez is currently in Venezuela, and Haynes, who recently gave birth, could not be reached.

Calls with Haynes

Haynes' attorney, Eric Safire, said Lopez made the initial contact, seeking information about domestic violence counseling services. Haynes has domestic violence counseling training, he said, and questioned and assessed whether Lopez was in danger.

Madison told investigators that once Lopez learned, at about 3:30 p.m. that day, that Madison had called police, Lopez within minutes called Haynes from her cell phone and then handed the phone to Madison. Haynes then pressured her to send police away, Madison told investigators.

The phone records show an almost 14-minute call at 3:31 p.m., but Haynes placed the call to Lopez, not the other way around.

As soon as that call ended, Haynes called Mirkarimi twice in quick succession: The first doesn't connect, and the second lasts only 28 seconds, according to the records.

Safire said his client "never encouraged Ivory Madison to do anything illegal."

Lopez appears increasingly frantic in her text messages to her husband afterward, first asking "where are you and where is the car" followed later by "call me, it's an emergency."