ANCHOR: Let’s start in Tucson with Patterson and charges of domestic violence. What do we know there?
REPORTER: With Daniel Patterson, we know that he is headed to court this week, I believe on Thursday for pre-trial. He’s accused of, as you mentioned, four counts of domestic violence for basically roughing up his ex-girlfriend. She was his former campaign manager as well. He also has an ethics hearing this week, tomorrow at the state capital. It’s the first step in this process, where this ethics panel is going to look at possibly even recommending his removal from the legislature. This is not the first time that Patterson’s been involved in domestic violence issues. In 2010, his ex-wife accused him of domestic violence; he was never charged in it, but she was granted a restraining order. So, Patterson does have some problems facing him.
ANCHOR: And at the end of the day, it does look like he may long-term may be out of office. We’ll see what happens with that one as they continue to go through all the court hearings.
ANCHOR: Let’s talk about former Rep. Richard Miranda, back here in the valley, and the issues that he faces this week.
REPORTER: Yeah, absolutely. He resigned abruptly last month, citing family and health concerns. And ever since, he’s been tight-lipped; as far as I know, he hasn’t done one media interview. Really what happened is some details started trickling out about his resignation, and that is that he could be in trouble with federal authorities for tax evasion. He has a federal hearing this week in federal court. The actual criminal case against him has not been filed yet, but on the federal court docket it says that he is scheduled to appear Wednesday for an arraignment and a change of plea hearing, so some details will unfold this week.