NY Democrat Indicted on Assault Charges For Attack on Photographer

Classy bunch, these NY State Senate Democrats. This is now the second one indicted on felony assault charges this year.

Sen. Kevin Parker was indicted on multiple assault, harassment and criminal mischief charges today in connection with his May 8 attack on a New York Post photographer, Kings County DA Charles Hynes announced.

From the press release:

"The charges include Assault in the Second Degree, Assault in the Third Degree, Criminal Mischief in the Third Degree, Criminal Mischief in the Fourth Degree, Menacing in the Third Degree and Harassment in the Second Degree. If convicted, Parker faces up to seven years in prison.

An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of defendant’s guilt.

The second degree assault charge is Class D felony; criminal mischief in the third degree is a Class E felony. The others are all misdemeanors

Parker is the second Senate Democrat to be indicted on felony charges since the party took the majority last November.

The first, of course, was Sen. Hiram Monserrate, who also faces up to seven years in prison if he's convicted on charges that he assaulted his girlfriend with a broken glass.

Monserrate's attorneys are trying to get his indictment quashed, arguing that one of the grand jurors was a cop in the precinct that investigated him.

In response to the news about Parker, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith's spokesman Austin Shafran offered the following comment:

"Sen. Smith has already taken the most severe action he is empowered to against Sen. Parker and now we will have to let the legal process run its due course."

Previously.