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State House May Vote on Tuesday on Ethics Charges Against Rep Daniel Patterson

The state House could decide as early as Tuesday whether to expel the Tucson lawmaker.

The Ethics Committee meets at 9:30 in the morning to review the response by Daniel Patterson to a report by a legal team led by attorney Michael Manning which concluded he is guilty of a pattern of misconduct. That includes being abusive and combative with fellow lawmakers. Rep. Ted Vogt who chairs the committee said the possibility exists the panel will accept the response and then vote, without giving Patterson a chance to put on a case of his own or cross-examine witnesses.

"What I'm waiting to do is receive the documents," said Vogt. "We'll evaluate them and then decide what has to happen next. That's what we're doing. We don't have this scripted all the way out. The process is, as we meet these milestones, we're going to take a look and see what's filed and what we need to do."

That possibility perturbed Patterson.

"I got a big problem with that," said Patterson. "I hope that that's going to change. I want my hearing. I plan to respond to Mike Manning's report. I think Manning's report is basically garbage."

The committee's recommendation of what to do with Patterson goes to the full House, which could act within hours.