Hiram Monserrate Should Face Expulsion Vote: State Senate Committee

The state senate committee report on Hiram Monserrate is slightly rougher than previously advertised. As promised, it recommends "expulsion, or in the alternative, censure with revocation of privileges," but also states that Monserrate showed in his conduct during and after the attack on girlfriend Katy Giraldo, of which he was found guilty last October, "a lack of fitness to serve in this body."

The report, working from court documents and phone records (neither Monserrate nor his girlfriend cooperated with them at all) says that Monserrate "recklessly assaulted Ms. Giraldo" and, in the aftermath of the assault, "was clearly concerned with matters other than the health of a bleeding woman." They find Giraldo's testimony "inconsistent and unreliable," and that Monserrate "has not accepted responsibility for his actions."

After running through legal and Constitutional precedents for the senate's power to sanction and even expel members, the report states that "Monserrate's misconduct damages the integrity and the reputation of the New York State Senate and demonstrates a lack of fitness to serve in this body."

The committee "finds that this case is serious enough to warrant a severe sanction" and recommends that the full senate vote on their proposed remedies. It declines, however, to recommend that expulsion be considered first, though "some members of the Select Committee believe that it would be logical and efficient" to do so.