Karla Giraldo (Stephen Yang)
MONSERROTTEN: Former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate leaves federal court yesterday after his sentencing on official corruption charges. (
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Call him “Tricky Hiram.”
Crooked pol Hiram Monserrate was likened to disgraced President Richard Nixon yesterday by a judge who sentenced him to two years in the slammer for looting nearly $100,000 in taxpayer money to try to win higher office.
Manhattan federal Judge Colleen McMahon said Monserrate had placed himself above the law to influence an election, like disgraced “Tricky Dick” during the Watergate scandal.
“What you did is what Richard Nixon did,” said McMahon.
McMahon rejected Monserrate’s tearful plea to stay out of jail so he could care for his cancer-stricken mom and his autistic 16-year-old son — saying she needed to send a message to other officials.
“You plead eloquently for your family — especially your mother and your son — and I grieve for them,” she said.
“But I say to you what judges have said from time immemorial: You should have thought about them before you did it. And now you must pay the price.”
In addition to prison time, McMahon ordered the former city cop — who avoided jail a few years back after infamously assaulting his girlfriend — to pay back about $79,000 of the money he scammed while serving on the City Council.
The rest is to be paid back by co-conspirator Javier Cardenas, who ratted out Monserrate and is awaiting sentencing.
Monserrate, 45, pleaded guilty earlier this year to steering “slush” funds to Cardenas’ non-profit Latino Initiative for Better Resources and Empowerment, which used the money to boost Monserrate’s failed 2006 campaign for the state Senate, to which Monserrate was elected two years later bid.
The Queens Democrat sat shame-faced through his 15-minute tongue-lashing yesterday.
Afterward, he shared a dramatic courtroom embrace with ex-girlfriend Karla Giraldo, whom he roughed up during a jealous rage in 2008, leading to his historic ouster from the state Senate.
“From a very young age, I learned that when you commit sin, you must atone for that sin,” he said after sentencing. “I take responsibility, and this is part of that atonement.”