Sources say video shows Sen. Hiram Monserrate dragging lover, who looks 'scared out of her mind'
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
A Queens state senator who denies beating his girlfriend was caught on security cameras dragging the scared, bleeding woman from his apartment, law enforcement sources told the Daily News.
Newly elected Sen. Hiram Monserrate "will be convicted by the security video" taken in the hallway and outside his Jackson Heights apartment after he allegedly slashed Karla Giraldo in a jealous rage, sources said.
"No one can look at the security video and think that this was an accident," said a law enforcement source who saw the footage. "The woman looks scared out of her mind and trying to get away from this guy."
The video shows Giraldo grabbing the apartment's front door as Monserrate tried to drag her out of the building, sources said.
Other video clips show Giraldo clutching a towel to her injured left eye and banging on the door of a neighbor's apartment for help, sources said.
That neighbor, Carolyn Loudon, 46, said Tuesday she heard Giraldo banging on her door but was too scared to open it.
She said she is used to noise coming from Monserrate's unit, but the ruckus was worse than usual on Dec. 19.
"It was frightening," Loudon said. "I heard screaming and then banging on the door."
Then, later "at 3 a.m. I looked out the door and saw a bloody towel," she said. "About an hour later, I heard a noise and looked out again and the towel was gone.
"I know I should have called 911. That was a mistake."
Monserrate said he tripped and accidentally cut Giraldo with a broken drinking glass, requiring more than 20 stitches over her left eye, in the incident.
Monserrate told The News on Monday that "any videotapes the police obtained from my building will back me up."
An individual familiar with the Democrat's defense said the senator has maintained that Giraldo never wanted to go to the hospital and nothing in the video contradicts that account, despite "creative interpretation by self-proclaimed law enforcement sources."
Giraldo at first told a doctor at Long Island Jewish Medical Center that Monserrate beat her, but then changed her story. She wants prosecutors to drop assault charges.
Emergency room doctor Dawne Kort told Queens prosecutors on Tuesday that Giraldo accused Monserrate of bashing her in the face, sources said.
"The doctor's testimony cements what you see in the video - a terrified woman, begging for help," said a second source who was briefed on the content of the video sequence.
A camera on the second floor records Monserrate in the hallway screaming at someone inside his apartment, sources said. There is no audio in the security video.
Monserrate is then seen throwing something down the building's garbage chute - believed to be a card belonging to another man, which cops say enraged Monserrate when he found it in Giraldo's possession.
Another camera captured Giraldo holding a towel to her injured eye. Monserrate is screaming at her and pulling her by the shoulder, sources said.
In the most damning clip, a camera recorded Giraldo crying and banging on Loudon's door, sources said.
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