State Sen. Hiram Monser rate’s gal pal made a grand show of her love yesterday by planting a big, wet kiss on his cheek as he walked into a Queens court to face charges of slashing her face with a broken glass.
Carla Giraldo, 30, leaned over the railing from the gallery and gave the Queens Democrat a kiss as his circuslike arraignment hearing began in a courtroom packed with supporters.
During the hearing, which lasted over an hour, both Monserrate’s and Giraldo’s lawyers begged the judge to lift an order of protection that has kept them apart since the Dec. 19 incident.
“It was an accident. I don’t need an order of protection. It’s unnecessary. This is an injustice. I love him,” Giraldo said afterward outside court.
Justice William Erlbaum ultimately denied the request after prosecutors showed him surveillance footage from Monserrate’s building that captured him stalking a bleeding Giraldo through the hall following the alleged assault.
A judge had earlier ruled that Monserrate, 41, keep away from Giraldo, 30, after he allegedly attacked her at his Jackson Heights apartment, leaving her with a gash over her eye that required 25 stitches.
Monserrate pleaded not guilty yesterday to six counts of assault and was allowed to remain free on $5,000 bail. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
“I’m innocent,” he told the judge. He is due back in court on June 26.
While Giraldo initially told cops Monserrate attacked her after finding another man’s business card in her purse, she has since changed her tune and claims it was all a mistake. He has said he accidentally tripped and fell into her, glass first.
“From the very beginning, I have said it was an accident. Carla has said that this was an accident. What occurred on December 19 is an accident,” he said, reading a statement after the hearing.
“The District Attorney’s Office, in fact, has had discussions with me about a plea — a nonfelony plea that had attached to it no jail time. I said unequivocally no to that because I am innocent.”
Since the incident, Monserrate, a former city councilman who was voted into the state Senate last November, has seen his political career screech to a halt, with fellow Democrats bouncing him from a committee chairmanship this week.
Among the many supporters who stood alongside the embattled state senator was José Guzman, who was shot 12 times by police in the Sean Bell slaying.
“The senator supported me when I was in court. Now I am here to support him. I don’t know if he is innocent or not, but I think he deserves a fair trial, which many blacks and Latinos don’t get in Queens,” Guzman said.