For the past month, Democratic state Representative Daniel Patterson has continuously denied the domestic-violence allegations that led to him becoming the subject of a House ethics complaint.
Now he's issued his formal response to the ethics complaint -- a complaint that was signed by nearly all of Arizona's House Democrats -- saying no one who signed that letter knows anything, and he still denies the allegations.
Patterson says the complaint, penned by Representative Katie Hobbs, isn't valid because House rules call for "personal knowledge" of the incidents.
"Personal knowledge must be something she would have seen or heard directly," Patterson explains. "It's not hearsay, rumors or claims she read on blogs. Hobbs was not present in Tucson, nor were any of the co-signers on her complaint. Neither she nor any co-signers made any effort to substantiate the claims before rushing to file the complaint. Her complaint is clearly not based on 'personal knowledge.'"
Patterson goes on to tackle more technical errors in the complaint, including not citing a specific rule or law he violated, and says he didn't violate any of them anyway.
Patterson also included the Facebook post from his accuser, Georgette Escobar, saying Patterson never did anything to her.
We would highly encourage reading an email exchange between Escobar and 12 News' Brahm Resnik by clicking here.
Patterson said it appears that the investigators are on a "fishing expedition," and may be violating his rights by going on said expedition.
Patterson posted this morning on Twitter that he's left town for a little vacation for his birthday.
Read Patterson's letter below:
