Hudson Valley Lawmaker Appears to Admit to Hitting Woman in Video

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A Hudson Valley lawmaker who once wrote on Facebook "It's not rape, It's surprise sex," is under fire again after a video surfaced in which he appears to say that he smacked a woman.

Last Friday, Republican Margaret Kakish highlighted a number of old Facebook posts made by Democratic Dutchess County lawmaker Giancarlo Llaverias.

"It's not rape, It's surprise sex," Llaverias wrote on Facebook on Aug. 11, 2011, according to screenshots shared by Kakish who is running against Llaverias for District 1 County Legislator in the Town of Poughkeepsie. Kakish said Llaverias has a history of posting "completely vulgar, offensive and disrespectful language about women."

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Llaverias later apologized saying he was sorry for the comments he made years ago.

"I am a flawed person who made mistakes in his youth and for the statements made years ago I am sorry. In those 6 years I have grown and matured into the community activist, minister, and elected official Dutchess County has grown to know," Llaverias said on Facebook.

Llaverias is now under more scrutiny for a video that was posted to Youtube on Jan. 31, 2019.

In the video, the Dutchess County lawmaker appears to defend singer R. Kelly and admits to hitting a woman.

In the video, which can be seen below, around 53:20 Llaverias appears to admit to controlling a former girlfriend saying "I did hit them" when pressed further what he considers "hit" he said, "I smacked her across the face."

Llaverias is on the right in the video. Local leaders are now pushing for Llaverias to resign.

"It has come to my attention that County Legislator Giancarlo Llaverias has admitted to committing domestic violence and hitting a women [SIC] he was in a relationship with. His caucus members need to break their silence, step up and ask his [SIC] to resign," Republican Gregg Pulver, District 19, wrote on Facebook.

Democratic Committee Chairwoman Elisa Sumner said she spoke with Llaverias who said the Youtube video was scripted, according to Newsource. Llaverias has since deleted or made his Facebook private.

We reached out to Llaverias for comment on this latest development but haven't heard back as of this writing.