State Sen. Hiram Monserrate decided yesterday not to face a jury of his peers, opting instead for a bench trial on charges he attacked his girlfriend.
The renegade Jackson Heights legislator, who switched parties as part of an abortive power grab by Senate Republicans, will have his case heard by Queens Supreme Court Justice William Erlbaum.
Monserrate, who defected back to the Democrats within days, wants the case to be tried without the interference of “biases, sympathy, predetermined beliefs [or] protesters,” said his lawyer, Joseph Tacopina.
A handful of demonstrators decrying domestic violence marched outside the courthouse before proceedings began.
“We want this case to be decided fairly and impartially, without any outside influence, without any biased sympathies or venom based on protests from people that don’t know anything about the facts of the case,” Tacopina said.
Jack Palmeri, a Queens defense lawyer and former Brooklyn prosecutor, termed the strategy risky.
“It’s really gutsy — but really risky,” Palmeri said. “He’s taking out one of the key components of a jury, and that’s empathy.
“A judge cannot and will not be sympathetic to you, relying completely on the law.”
Defense lawyer Michael Dowd, who is currently representing Barbara Sheehan, accused of murdering her husband, said as a rule he doesn’t believe in forgoing a jury.
“I’ve done it twice in 40 years,” Dowd said. “That gives you some sense of how often I think is appropriate.”
But Charles DeStefano, a Staten Island trial lawyer, said there was some upside.
“You don’t always get the jury you want,” DeStefano said. “This way you know what you’re dealing with.”
Erlbaum must decide whether Monserrate accidentally tripped and fell into her while holding a glass of water — as he has said — or if he did it on purpose in a fit of rage.
Monserrate, 42, a former cop, had been arguing with Karla Giraldo at his apartment Dec. 18 when the incident occurred.
He was later seen on a videotape dragging Giraldo down the hall in his Jackson Heights building before driving her to Long Island Jewish Hospital, where she received 20 stitches to her left eye.
Giraldo initially told medical personnel that Monserrate cut her intentionally, but later recanted, swearing in an affidavit that it was an accident and repeatedly showing up at court trying to lift an order barring Monserrate from coming near her.
If convicted of the top charge, a felony, Monserrate faces up to seven years in prison and automatic loss of his senate seat.