Remember when Karla Giraldo, the girlfriend of disgraced former state senator Hiram Monserrate, took to the stand during trial and claimed that he had only slashed her in the face by accident? Even after he was convicted of recklessly harming her, the two continued to date, although they had to wait for a judge's order of protection to expire before they could start doing the deed again. But that wasn't the ballsiest move by the couple: After Monserrate was kicked out of office by his Senate colleagues, he up and ran for the seat again. When that bid failed by a large margin, he ran for State Assembly and started showing up at political events uninvited. He lost that bid, but he and Giraldo aren't giving up the fight for redemption.

In a final bid to clear his name, Giraldo has sued the city, claiming that police and hospital workers forced her to claim that Monserrate had aggressively assaulted her with a broken water glass, causing her facial wounds that required dozens of stitches. "All of the defendants conspired among each other and with each other to unlawfully detain and prevent plaintiff from leaving the hospital ... until she would falsely accuse her boyfriend of assaulting her," the complaint claims. She's asking for $35 million.

Seems logical. Her boyfriend ruined both of their lives by slashing her in the face with a shard of glass. Somebody should pay. And why should it be them? (Oh, and meanwhile, Monserrate himself was in court yesterday for another reason: He's charged with co-opting more than $100,000 from a taxpayer-funded charity for his own use.)

Monserrate's gal suing city for whopping $35 million, cites conspiracy against former state senator [NYDN]