Hiram Monserrate is many things: An ex-cop, an ex-City Council member, an ex-State Senator, a convicted girlfriend slasher, and a subject of a federal corruption investigation. And now he's a legal bill deadbeat. His defense lawyer, celebrity lawyer Joseph Tacopina, says that Monserrate hasn't paid him anything, so Tacopina is asking that the judge remove him from the federal corruption case or name him Monserrate's court-appointed lawyer, so he at least get something (even if it's just $125/hour, which is a step down from his usual $750/hour fee).
Monserrate, who lost a bid to run for a Queens Assembly seat last fall, claims he only has $100 to his name and $128,000 in debt. There's the $74,000 mortgage on his Queens apartment, and then "$14,000 in credit cards, $10,000 for a car lease, $8,000 in student loans and $22,000 in taxes," according to the News.
If Tacopina is appointed Monserrate's lawyer by the judge, the government will only pay up to $9,700.
