The State Supreme Court last week unanimously affirmed former Senator Hiram Monserrate's third-degree assault conviction for physically harming his girlfriend at his Jackson Heights apartment in December 2008, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown announced.

Monserrate was convicted on October 15, 2009, following a bench trial in the Queens Supreme Court.

Surveillance video presented in the trial showed Monserrate forcibly and violently dragging his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo, by the arm down a flight of stairs and through the lobby of his building on December 19, 2008.

Justice William Erlbaum noted that Giraldo suffered serious pain, citing bruises, a cut on her arm and “severe facial injuries” from just before Monseratte dragged her out of his apartment, according to Brown's office.

In addition, it was shown in court that Monserrate then drove Giraldo to a hospital 14 miles away, although the closest hospital to his building was a half-mile away, and parked outside the main entrance instead of the emergency room.

At the hospital, Giraldo received roughly 40 stitches to the area around her left eye.

On December 4, 2009, Monserrate was sentenced to three years of supervised probation, 52 weeks of counseling, 250 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine.

“The Appellate Division's affirmation of the trial court's verdict and sentence," Brown said in a statement, conveys a clear message that domestic violence is a serious crime that can never be condoned.

"The court's unanimous decision represents a victory for those of us who seek to prevent family violence and abuse, and to punish those who engage in such conduct," he said.

Carmella T.M. Marrone, executive director for the Woman and Work Program at Queens College, who works closely with the district attorney's office on spreading domestic violence education, said such violence is a public health issue that needs to be addressed on a larger scale than the individual.

"What this says to me is that we are holding him accountable," Marrone said.

But, "the mess that we really have to concern ourselves is less with the punishment of the individual and [more with] the education of a society," she added. "This is a problem that affects us all whether we're directly victimized or not."

Monserrate's community service sentence shows the court recognizes that the issue is a problem for the whole community, whether or not its members are directly victimized, she said.

"I think that by demanding community service, it's more of a public recognition that he pays back that community," Marrone said.

She said that more than 10 million children are affected by domestic violence a year, and 65 percent of homes in which women are abused, children are also abused.

Domestic violence is more prevalent in times of economic hardship, she said, because stress exacerbates situations.

In addition, Marrone said it is a problem across racial, ethnic and class lines.

"We should all take away from this that if this is happening with people like Hiram Monserrate, it's happening everywhere," she said. "Domestic violence is an epidemic."