Paterson: With time, therapy Monserrate could return

State Sen. Hiram Monserrate could have another career in politics - after years of therapy, Gov. David A. Paterson said Friday.

He lauded Monserrate's expulsion from the Senate after a misdemeanor conviction for assaulting his girlfriend. Citing a Senate probe, Paterson said it appeared Monserrate aides coerced the woman to bolster his innocence claim.

"If Senator Monserrate really engages in some self awareness and thinks about this and takes appropriate measures, he might have a career again," the governor said. " . . . We all have to go through some period of penitence when we have done something wrong."

Monserrate seeks to overturn the expulsion and run for re-election in November. - James T. Madore

in Albany