“You want the water? You want the water? Here’s the water!”
With those angry words, state Sen. Hiram Monserrate smashed a glass of water into his girlfriend Karla Giraldo’s face, an emergency room doctor quoted the gal pal as saying.
Testifying today in the Queens Democrat’s assault trial, Dr. Dawne Kort, who works at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, said Giraldo sobbed almost constantly as she described what happened last Dec. 19.
“I can’t believe he did this to me. My face! My face! I can’t believe my face,” Kort quoted the anguished woman as saying.
The doctor, who speaks both English and Spanish, said Giraldo told her that she and Monserrate “were fighting and she asked for a glass of water and he shoved it in her face.”
Kort said the girlfriend made a quick, thrusting motion with her arm to illustrate what happened.
Monserrate’s “tone was aggressive,” the doctor said. “You want the water? You want the water. Here’s the water.”
Kort’s testimony is a central piece of the prosecution’s case against the ex-cop and Marine because Giraldo now refuses to testify against Monserrate.
Defense attorney Joseph Tacopina says Giraldo was accidentally cut when a clumsy Monserrate tripped while give her the water. He says the two still love each other.
The doctor said Giraldo had lacerations around her left eye and blood on a towel she held to her face and on her clothing.
She also had a faint smell of alcohol on her breath. Giraldo said she had some wine, but Kort didn’t know how much.
The doctor said she asked questions in English and Spanish and Giraldo, who is from Ecuador, replied in both languages.
The injured woman was “upset,” she said. “She was crying. She was sobbing.”
Kort said Giraldo became hysterical when she told her she would have to have stitches.
“She said she didn’t want stitches, only tape,” the doctor said, referring to butterfly bandages.
At that point, another emergency room doctor came up and said Monserrate told him that he tripped while giving Giraldo a glass of water and the injury was an accident.
Assistant District Attorney Scott Kessler asked Kort how Giraldo responded.
“She said many times it was not an accident. They were fighting and he took a piece of glass and cut her face,” the physician replied.
Kessler then asked if at any point, Giraldo said it was an accident and if she ever used the words trip, stumble or fall.
Kort replied no to both questions.
The doctor said Giraldo became deeply upset when she told her she was going to call the police.
“She became more upset, more hysterical. ‘No! No! You can’t call the police!’” Kort quoted her as saying.
The doctor said she did call the cops because “it appeared to be a stab wound. It’s hospital policy that all stab wounds get reported to the police.”