Video released of State Senator Hiram Monserrate
This is a disturbing video that clearly shows what can only be described as physical abuse. It’s made all the more disturbing by the fact that the perpetrator is a state senator. More disturbing still is the fact that this is a state senator, Hiram Monserrate, who leaders of both parties were fighting over last summer to get into the majority, making him one of the most powerful and influential people in Albany.
To give some context to this case, it’s necessary to go look back a year ago to the 2008 elections. Monserrate was elected to the state senate to fill the 13th Senate district in Queens that was left vacant by John Sabini’s appointment to become chairman of the State Racing and Wagering Board. The 13th district votes overwhelmingly Democratic and Monserrate had no trouble winning. After the election, he was the first of the “Gang of Four” to break from the group and pledge his support for Malcolm Smith. The other three members of the Gang soon followed suit.
This is where things started getting messy… In December, only a few weeks before he was to be sworn into office, Monserrate was arrested for suspicion of assaulting his girlfriend, who needed some 20 stitches after being struck be a broken beer bottle. This video, released by prosecutors a few days ago, showed what allegedly happened in the moments before and after this event, and as you’ll see, it’s ugly. In March of this year, he was indicted on several counts of second- and third-degree assault charges.
Then in June, the Republican “Coalition” had it’s attempted coup of the State Senate leadership in which Monserrate and Pedro Espada unexpectedly (and at the urging of Tom Golisano) switched their loyalties from Malcolm Smith to Dean Skelos, giving Republicans a hypothetical 32-30 majority. Monserrate lasted only about a week with the Republicans and eventually succumbed to the overwhelming pressure to return to the Democratic fold, throwing the state into further chaos with a 31-31 tie with no lieutenant governor to break it. Then in July, Espada also re-switched sides, putting the Dems back in control.
But a few days ago, the drama involving Hiram Monserrate was re-ignited on a national scale when prosecutors who are trying the case released this video to the public. It clearly shows a physical struggle with the then-state senator-elect physically dominating his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo, who is visibly in distress. Monserrate has maintained since the night of the fight that this was all an accident, which Giraldo — who refuses to cooperate with prosecutors — has also corroborated.
He is adamant that he is innocent and that he will not resign his seat in the senate. But even if it was an accident, which is extremely difficult to believe, the way he was behaving in that video with someone who he supposedly has a loving relationship with and who is in a lot of pain, is beneath the dignity of the office and the public trust that he holds. In any case, he should resign immediately so that someone with higher moral standards can become one of only 62 state senators in the third largest state in the union. Anything less than that is Albany as usual.
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