Daniel Patterson -- the drama continues UPDATED 2-28-12 9:50pm MST

Today, House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, Senate Minority Leadership (Sens. David Schapira, Leah Landrum Taylor and Linda Lopez) and leadership of the Arizona Democratic Party all called on Daniel Patterson to resign his seat in the House of Representatives following the most recent allegations of domestic violence.

Democratic State Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-South Phoenix) posted the following on facebook:

Accountability and respect is important. We Dems gave Representative Patterson every opportunity, this latest incident has made all Dems come out with one voice and ask him to resign. We will be submitting an ethics complaint in a few minutes.

 Patterson says he will not resign and tweeted:

Allegations are lies from person w bad mental problems & violent criminal history trying to blackmail me. I will not resign.

Patterson's girlfriend, Georgette Escobar, has obtained an order of protection nevertheless.

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UPDATE:

Channel 12 (Phoenix, KPNX) reporter by Brahm Resnik describes the police report:

Police reports on three visits to Democratic State Rep. Daniel Patterson’s Tucson home since Friday show officers responding to a “he said, she said” argument that will not lead to any charges.

A Tucson police spokeswoman read the reports to me over the phone Tuesday. The reports include Patterson’s call from the home at 8 p.m. Monday, after reports that his live-in girlfriend had obtained a restraining order against him. (A Freedom of Information Act request, the usual route to obtain copies of reports, would take a week to fulfill, the spokeswoman informed me.)

On Monday, Patterson's Democratic colleagues at the Capitol and the executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party called on him to resign. His Democratic colleagues in the House filed an ethics complaint against him. Here’s a summary of the police reports (more at azcentral.com):

No charges are currently pending pursuant to Tucson Police reports. Nevertheless, the ethics complaint filed yesterday against Patterson in the Arizona House of Representatives is not dependent on criminal charges. An ethics complaint, if accepted by the House Ethics committee would result in hearings, presentation of evidence, findings and recommended sanctions. It is too early to get a feel for how it might all play out.

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UPDATE 2-28-12 9:40pm

The Tucson Weekly posted about the Patterson/Escobar drama this evening:

This morning the Tucson Weekly requested the Tucson Police Department report on the Friday, Feb. 24, incident between state Rep. Daniel Patterson and his ex-girlfriend and ex-campaign manager, Georgette Escobar, but was told by a public-records clerk that the report was not available, because the case was assigned to a TPD detective for further investigation.

Yesterday, we interviewed Escobar and Patterson regarding what happened that day. Escobar claims that Tucson Parks and Recreation employees witnessed Patterson and Escobar get into a fight. Escobar said Patterson allegedly grabbed her roughly, pulled her fingers back to remove them from her dog's collar, and pulled the dog out of her car by the collar.
Patterson told the Weekly that he was the one attacked.

Although that report isn't yet available, the Weekly requested a list of all TPD-responded incidents or 911 calls in 2011 and the past two months made from the property owned by Patterson, located north off Santa Rita Park just east of Fourth Avenue, where he lived until recently with Escobar. 

I've had several people message me privately with their thoughts on this situation. One that reflects a good deal of my perspective on this situation reads, in pertinent part:

...I am no fan of [Daniel Patterson]..I think women should put him on a "don't date---not ever--list" but this appears to be a nasty breakup between two unstable people. 

From the description given by Mari Herreras on Tucson Weekly, that also seems to sum up the situation.

Others wonder why Democratic lawmakers and leadership of the Arizona Democratic Party jumped so quickly and forcefully on the situation, filing an ethics complaint against Patterson on Monday. All I can figure at this point is that they had had it "up to here" with him already. There have been allegations of domestic violence, drug use and evidence of difficult working relationships over the last couple of years. There is still no indication of how this will all play out in the end. But it will continue to be public drama either until Daniel Patterson resigns and retreats to his private life to get things in order or he successfully refutes allegations. I have no idea which way it will go.