NY sen partly acquitted in attack on girlfriend

NEW YORK — A freshman state senator accused of slashing his girlfriend’s face in a jealous rage was acquitted Thursday of a felony charge, but was convicted of a lesser charge of grabbing her by the arm in a scene caught on videotape.

State Sen. Hiram Monserrate, a Queens Democrat, could have lost his Senate seat if convicted of second-degree felony assault. He faces up to a year in prison at his sentencing Dec. 4 for a misdemeanor count of third-degree assault for injuring his girlfriend while forcibly dragging her from the apartment.

Monserrate, 42, claimed the incident was an accident, and so did his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo.

“A terrible accident occurred to my girlfriend, Karla Giraldo, a person that I love, and I have to live with that forever. There were no winners here,” Monserrate said outside court after the verdict.

But prosecutors argued she told medical personnel Monserrate intentionally smashed a drinking glass into her face following an argument about another man.

Judge William Erlbaum, ruling in a non-jury trial, said Giraldo’s testimony was significant, but “can one know she’s not being forgiving or that she’s not being compassionate? One can’t know that.”

While a misdemeanor conviction doesn’t automatically force Monserrate to vacate his Senate seat, it opens the door for senators to consider passing a resolution to either censure or expel him. That would require a 32-vote majority following a committee investigation. Republicans hold 30 seats and would need just two Democrats to join them to remove Monserrate, whose term runs through 2010.

Sen. John Sampson said the Senate Democratic majority’s leaders were discussing “the potential for further disciplinary action.”

Sampson, a Brooklyn lawmaker who heads the Democratic conference, said the incident has been “troubling,” but that “the Senate will continue to move forward and fulfill its duty.”

Prosecutors said Monserrate — a Marine and ex-cop — smashed Giraldo’s face with a drinking glass after an argument over another man after she came over to his apartment on Dec. 19 with another man’s card in her purse.

Surveillance tape shows Monserrate take the card to the trash chute outside his apartment, wave it at Giraldo, and toss it down.

They spent the next two hours fighting, according to testimony from a downstairs neighbor who said she banged on the ceiling with a broom in order to get them to quiet down. She heard a woman crying and a thump.

Grainy surveillance footage later showed Giraldo make a beeline for the neighbor’s door, as Monserrate grabbed her and dragged her downstairs.

Later, at the hospital, Giraldo told a doctor and nurse that Monserrate slashed her face on purpose, according to testimony. The wound above her left eye required 20 to 40 stitches. It was only when she discovered Monserrate was going to be arrested that she changed her story, prosecutors argued.

Defense attorney Joseph Tacopina argued the doctors didn’t understand Giraldo and were predisposed to believing she had been abused. He said they doctored their notes to reflect their misconceptions.

But the outcome of the case rested mainly with Giraldo’s testimony.

Just weeks after the incident, Monserrate was sworn in to the state Senate, and named chairman of the consumer affairs committee. This summer, he and fellow Democrat Pedro Espada Jr. brazenly ignited a coup in the Senate by joining a Republican-dominated coalition that overthrew the majority. The deadlock lasted a month before it was resolved.

Associated Press writer Michael Virtanen in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.