MONSERRATE’S MISDEMEANOR

State Sen. Hiram Monserrate was convicted last Thursday, Oct. 15, of a misdemeanor charge for assaulting his girlfriend at his Jackson Heights apartment last December—but was acquitted on felony counts that would have required him to leave office.

The 42-year-old legislator was found guilty of third-degree assault by Queens Supreme Court Justice William M. Erlbaum following a three-week bench trial. Monserrate is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 4; the class A misdemeanor charge is punishable by up to a year in prison.

Judge Erlbaum found Monserrate not guilty on second-degree assault charges, felony counts included in the grand jury indictment of the state senator last March. Under state law, Monserrate would have been forced to leave office had he been convicted of a felony.

Nevertheless, the state senator’s conviction on the misdemeanor charge has prompted numerous elected officials to call for his resig- nation or removal from office. Monserrate rebuffed those calls in an interview with the New York Daily News published on Oct. 18.

The New York State Senate Democratic Conference announced on Tuesday, Oct. 20, that it has formed a special “committee of inquiry” to investigate Monserrate’s conduct related to the assault for which he was convicted last Thursday. The committee— consisting of five Democrats and four Republicans—is chaired by State Sen. Eric Schneiderman and incldes State Sen. Toby Stavisky of Queens.

“Violence against women is a serious crime which must be viewed with the utmost concern and is simply unacceptable to everyone in a just and safe society,” said Senate Majority Conference Leader John L. Sampson. “A court has now ruled, and now the Senate will examine the action we can take as a body. We have a lot of work ahead of us—and important issues to resolve in the Senate. Establishing this bipartisan committee is the proper step we must take to protect the institution of the Senate and the rights of each member.”

Following the judge’s verdict last Thursday, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said in a statement that he could not “quarrel” with the decision to convict Monserrate on the lesser charge.

“It represents the verdict of an experienced and fair and impartial factfinder that the defendant physically abused his victim—that the defendant engaged in an act of domestic violence,” Brown said. “The decision represents a victory for those of us who seek to prevent family violence and abuse—and to punish those who engage in such conduct. And it more than justifies our prosecution of this case, in spite of the victim’s refusal to assist—or in any [way] cooperate— with us in the prosecution.”

As previously reported, Monserrate was initially arrested by police on Dec. 19, 2008 for assaulting his girlfriend—31-year-old Karla Giraldo— inside his apartment on 83rd Street.

According to the indictment, the legislator and Giraldo became embroiled in a dispute at around 1:30 a.m. that morning when Monserrate broke a drinking glass he was holding in his hand and struck her in the face with one of the shards, causing a laceration above her left eye.

Monserrate—who at the time was a City Council member who would be installed in January as state senator for the 13th Senate District covering Corona, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights—brought Giraldo to Long Island Jewish Medical Center on the Queens/Nassau border a short time later.

In statements made following his arrest, Monserrate said that Giraldo “insisted that she would not go to Elmhurst Hospital Center,” which is located only blocks from his residence.

During an examination, members of the LIJ staff alerted police to the incident. Members of the 105th Precinct then responded to the hospital and brought Monserrate to their Queens Village stationhouse for questioning. He was later arrested on assault charges.

At the time, Monserrate claimed that the incident was an accident, an assessment later agreed to by Giraldo following the senator’s arrest and indictment.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Scott E. Kessler, bureau chief of the D.A.’s Domestic Violence Bureau, and Johnnette G. Traill, deputy bureau chief of the Appeals Bureau.