Anti Gay New York Senator Gets Probation For Beating Up His Domestic Partner
12/6/09-by Paula Brooks
New York State Senator Hiram Monserrate, one of the Democrats who helped “defend traditional marriage” in the New York Senate last week by voting against a bill that would have made same-sex marriage legal in the Empire State, was sentenced to 250 hours of community service. 52 weeks of domestic abuse counseling and three years of probation, on an assault conviction stemming from a December 2008 incident where he “accidentally” slashed his girlfriends face while beating the crap out of her after he dragged her through the lobby of his Queens apartment building.
Prosecutors had said that Monserrate, an ex-Marine, lashed out at his domestic partner, Karla Giraldo, with a glass in a fit of rage after he found another man’s business card in her purse. The glass broke against her face, cutting her near her left eye down to her skull and leaving a lasting scar.
Monserrate had been originally charged with two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts of assault after cutting Giraldo’s face during a bitter argument in his apartment on Dec. 19, 2008. However, in October, New York William M. Erlbaum, who presided over his trial, acquitted him on the two felony assault charges, which carried a mandatory sentence of seven years in prison and would have forced him to forfeit his Senate seat.
A security video showed Monserrate dragging Ms. Giraldo through the lobby of his apartment building and statements that doctors at Long Island Jewish Medical Center made said Ms. Giraldo pretty much had the holy shit beat out of her. Justice Erlbaum said, however, that he could not ascertain beyond a reasonable doubt that what happened inside Monserrate’s apartment was an intentional attack.
Monserrate was nonetheless convicted on a single count of misdemeanor assault, which carried a maximum of one year behind bars and, according to court insiders, received the lighter sentence largely because Monserrate was a first-time offender.
Thankfully, Erlbaum did refuse to lift a protection order that has kept them from seeing one another for the past 11 months.
“I am loath to say you can’t be together. But a promise alone that Mr. Monserrate will respect her autonomy is a far cry from remedying the green-eyed monster of jealousy,” Erlbaum added, “I hope the time will come that Karla Giraldo will have the self-respect to stop acting like a slave.”
It should be noted that misdemeanor convictions do not carry an automatic expulsion from the New York Senate and Monserrate has vowed not to resign, even though a Senate committee is investigating whether to censure, suspend or expel him from that body.
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Onward to equality….In the meantime couples can come to CT to wed, where we just celebrated the one year anniversary of our marriage equality law.
Joe Mustich, Justice of the Peace, Washington, Connecticut, USA.
Joe… if it is all the same to you… I will pass on the getting my butt kicked by my partner part of the equality
The GLBT community isn’t looking at this in the most correct way. Monserrate voted with Diaz against us because Diaz spoke in Monserrate’s favor even *after* Monserrate was convicted. Monserrate was paying Diaz back for the favor. We see plainly in the video that Giraldo was walking without getting pulled *until* she rang the neighbor’s doorbell. Yet Diaz has said that Monserrate was convicted for “trying to do good” (getting Giraldo to a hospital). We should be demanding that Diaz stop covering for and enabling the abuser Monserrate. Monserrate didn’t drag her away from the neighbor’s door “trying to do good.” Also, the GLBT community should speak up more often and more forefully for gay victims of domestic violence. Gay leaders don’t want to talk about the topic at all because it distracts from marital rights. Meanwhile, the most vulnerable in our community are left to suffer horrendous fates. In all NYC, there isn’t one gay shelter for abuse victims.
http://speakabout-it.blogspot.com/ << do u hate or love gays go here please i need help with this blog i need more postshttp://speakabout-it.blogspot.com/ << do u hate or love gays go here please i need help with this blog i need more posts
The Bible does NOT condemn homosexuality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wdQ1LkRi0s Our nation’s laws are founded on due process and equal protection. Sad that scumbags like this guy can hide behind the Bible and vote against our civil rights. The man should be in prison for what he did to Karla.
I’d have to say since everyone who writes for this site is gay… we tend to be sort of partial to gays…
But if you need more posts… we have roughly about 3000 of them that you can choose from
are you kidding? it has everything to do with it. He voted no because he belives in tradtional marriage then he lives with his girlfriend in a non marriage and beats her up. No moral virtue for this peice of work whi has a hand in impacting my right o marry. It has nothing to do with being gay or not gay – its having the audacity to judge someone else’s morals.
Did you really just say that unironically? I read a serious amount of judging of morals in your post.
Don’t take this the wrong way: this guy’s a total mess. In fact, anyone who’s abusing anyone is a real mess. Perhaps we could look for ways that we could help eachother understand instead of just blaming eachother.