State Senator-Elect Accused of Slashing Companion’s Face

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/20/nyreg ... f=nyregion


By RAY RIVERA and AL BAKER
Published: December 19, 2008
State Senator-elect Hiram Monserrate, a Queens Democrat, was arrested early Friday and accused of slashing his companion in the face with a broken drinking glass during an argument in his Jackson Heights apartment, the authorities said. He then drove her to a hospital outside the city, officials said, where she required 20 stitches.

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Richard Lee for The New York Times
City Councilman Hiram Monserrate, a Queens Democrat, leaving the 105th Precinct headquarters on Friday.


Ruby Washington/The New York Times
City Councilman Hiram Monserrate during a vote in the Council on Thursday.
Mr. Monserrate, 41, who is in his final days as a city councilman, was charged with second-degree assault, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison, the police said. If Mr. Monserrate is convicted, state law requires that he be expelled from the Senate.

At 4 p.m. on Friday, after nearly 12 hours at the 105th Precinct headquarters in Queens, Mr. Monserrate, wearing a dark baseball hat and striped track pants, was led out in handcuffs and put into a police car. His lawyer was James Cullen.

At Mr. Monserrate’s arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on Friday evening, the assistant district attorney, Scott Kessler, said that Mr. Monserrate told the police he was bringing his companion, Karla Giraldo, 30, a glass of water and leaned over and tripped, and the glass hit her. But the prosecutor said that Ms. Giraldo later said that the couple had a “loud and boisterousâ€