Immediately after State Senator Hiram Monserrate pleaded not guilty to six counts of assault on Friday, March 27, a large crowd gathered on the steps of the Supreme Court of Queens County to show him their support.
However the next day, on the corner of 82nd Street and 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, deep in Monserrate’s district, his constituents had mixed feelings about the fate of their representative.
“He should resign, prove his innocence and then run again,” said Ramiro Rodríguez, a construction worker who lives in Jackson Heights.
“It’s been a long time coming that he should have resigned,” said Álvaro López, a maintenance man who resides in Elmhurst. “His ‘girlfriend’ should tell the truth.”
“It depends on the case,” said Carlos López, an elevator mechanic from Corona. “There could be political movements that are against him. She could have done it [initially said Monserrate hit her] for money.”
The varying opinions for and against Monserrate demonstrate the internal struggle within a community that believes he has been a good and hardworking leader, but who must now wonder whether their legislator can uphold the laws they voted him to create.
The charges against Monserrate stem from an altercation he allegedly had with his girlfriend Karla Giraldo, 29, during the early morning hours of December 19, 2008. During an argument, Monserrate allegedly struck Giraldo in the face with a water glass that left her with a black eye and lacerations that needed 20 stitches to close them.
Hours after the incident occurred, Monserrate took Giraldo to Long Island Jewish Medical Center, fourteen miles away in Nassau County, and not to the closer trauma center at Elmhurst Hospital.
A Long Island Jewish Medical Center spokesperson told The Queens Courier that “in the case of domestic violence or child abuse – these doctors they see a lot of patients – and in their judgment if they suspect a crime has been committed, they are obligated to report to the authorities.”
The police report from that night and a statement by the Queens District Attorney on Saturday, December 20, indicated that Giraldo had originally told hospital staff that Monserrate struck her on the face. Monserrate was arrested at the hospital. Giraldo later recanted and now claims, as does Monserrate, that it was an accident.
A spokesperson for Monserrate told The Queens Courier that, “Senator Monserrate said once again last Friday in court that it was an accident, and his girlfriend has said all along it was an accident.”
Angela Jackson, an associate vice president in the community and criminal justice program of Safe Horizons, an service organization for victims of crime, said that every victim has an individual story but most don’t come forth because of fear, threats to their safety and that of their children, financial dependence on the abuser and to avoid going before a courtroom full of people to share embarrassing details.
“In that initial incident, when you are being abused, you are scared to death and you want to help and you want to go to the police, to the hospital,” Jackson said. “But the next day, you think about having to face him in court. You are afraid of that person. The fear escalates when it’s someone you know.”
“Healthy relationships do not involve violence. They do involve argument, disagreements but not violence, intimidation or control,” she said.
At the arraignment, the presiding judge Supreme Court Justice William Erlbaum renewed an order of protection against Monserrate, which banned all forms of communication between the couple, until December 1, 2009, after he saw surveillance video footage of Monserrate dragging a bleeding Giraldo in the stairwell of his apartment building. The legislator and his girlfriend had requested to have the order removed.
Monserrate’s indictment has raised some demands in Albany for his resignation. Brooklyn Republican State Senator Martin Golden called for the newly-elected Senator to resign, as has National Organization for Women (NOW) New York State President, Marcia Pappas.
“The presence of this indicted individual in the halls of the NYS Legislature is an affront to all the women who work there,” said Pappas, whose organization rejects the fund that Democrats in the New York State Legislature have established to help finance Senator Hiram Monserrate’s legal fees.
And showing the same split as folks in Albany, Álvaro Rodríguez, an event coordinator from Flushing, said that “if a river makes noise it’s because there are rocks in it.”
“An innocent person would not be brought to trial,” said Rodríguez in front of a popular Colombian bakery on 37th Avenue. “He should not be there one additional day since he is on trial.”
A baker in the bakery, Javier Terrero from Flushing, had a different perspective.
“No, he [Monserrate shouldn’t resign] because he’s done his work. These are personal issues not political.”
– Additional reporting by Pete Davis
