Monserrate's Girlfriend Flees Trial In Tears

The girlfriend who last December accused state Senator Hiram Monserrate of slashing her face in a jealous rage, changed her story last week during testimony in Queens Supreme Court.

Karla Giraldo maintained her composure while telling the court through an interpreter that she was the one who arrived at Monserrate's apartment drunk on the night of December 19. Giraldo said it was she who flew into a rage when Monserrate said he was going to throw out a union card given to her by a police officer.

"I think, perhaps that [Monserrate] was a little jealous," Giraldo said. She then said she suffered the cuts to her face when Monserrate tripped while bringing her a glass of water. "This was an accident," Giraldo said. "I always said it was an accident."

Prosecutor Scott Kessler repeatedly pointed out inconsistencies between Giraldo's courtroom testimony last week and her prior grand jury testimony.

Giraldo bristled at Kessler's questioning until he played a security camera video taken after her face was slashed. The video shows Giraldo holding a towel to her bleeding face and ringing a neighbor's bell, seeking help. It shows Monserrate grabbing Giraldo from the neighbor's doorstep and dragging her out the door of the apartment building.

Giraldo burst into tears and ran out a back door of the courtroom as the video played. "I can't go on," she cried.

A composed Giraldo returned to the courtroom a short while later, where she told prosecutors, "[Monserrate] was not dragging me. He was just pulling me to take me to the hospital for my own good."

Testifying last week at the assault trial, Dr. Dawne Kort, who works at Long Island Jewish Medical Center said Giraldo sobbed uncontrollably while in the hospital's ER on December 19.

Kort said Giraldo told her, "I can't believe [Monserrate] did this to me. My face! My face!"

Doctors at LIJ put in almost 40 stitches to close two cuts around her left eye, Dr. Homayoun Sasson said. Sasson, who also testified last week, said Giraldo, 30, refused to have surgery on smaller cuts she suffered under her left eye "because she was afraid of the needles and stitches". Sasson told the court Giraldo will have permanent scars from the cuts she suffered.

Giraldo testified she never told doctors at LIJ that she was attacked sticking to her new story that she was drunk and suffered the cuts through a freak accident.

Kessler reminded Giraldo that in her grand jury testimony she clearly stated she was not drunk on the night of December 19, and that Monserrate attacked her.

Monserrate opted to leave a verdict in the case up to Judge William Erlbaum instead of taking his chances with a jury.