If he wants to run for mayor, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will have to explain why he didn’t vote to expel a girlfriend-beating former colleague from the state Senate, critics said.
The state Senate voted 53-8 to expel Sen. Hiram Monserrate in 2010 after he was convicted of misdemeanor assault for manhandling his girlfriend in an incident where he was caught on camera dragging her down a hallway while she was bleeding with cuts to her face.
Adams was one of the eight senators who voted against expulsion — while also questioning cops’ “unusual handling” of the case and showing up to Monserrate’s sentencing.
“It certainly is something he will have to answer for. It should give supporters great pause. His colleagues knew that battering women and being an elected leader don’t go together. We’re still grateful the Senate at that time overwhelmingly agreed and sent the message that abusers will not be given power,” said Sonia Ossorio, head of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women.
“In a mayoral race, the Hiram Monserrate vote will come up. Adams is going to have to explain himself,” Baruch College public affairs professor Doug Muzzio added.
Adams supported an alternative resolution that would have allowed a vote to expel Monserrate only after the embattled lawmaker exhausted appeals of his conviction — but that resolution never came up for a vote.
Instead, the Senate voted for Monserrate’s expulsion on the heels of his conviction — and a stinging report slamming his conduct.
Reached by The Post, Adams cited his own abusive father and rattled off a series of domestic violence programs he’s supported as he defended the decade-old decision.
“As a child who grew up with an abusive father, the safety of women and children is of utmost importance to me. That is why I have spent my entire career working to support domestic violence survivors, both as a police officer and a lawmaker. I am also proud to have worked on policies that help empower women to thrive, including fair pay, supportive housing, and gender equality,” Adams said.
He then provided the same statement he gave constituents in 2010, claiming that his vote “should not be construed” as being against Monserrate’s expulsion — and that waiting to boot Monserrate until after the appeals process was “a good faith attempt to avoid a judicial merry-go-round.”
“How foolish would we appear were the courts to overturn Senator Monserrate’s conviction after we had already expelled him,” the statement read. “To suggest that my vote denigrates women is wrong-headed … I decry all domestic violence behavior; to condone violence against women would violate all standards of decency, run counter to my commitment to end domestic violence, and violate my core values!”
Monserrate recently filed papers to run for state Assembly in yet another comeback bid.