Prosecutors Seek to Drop Charges Against Dominque Strauss-Kahn
- Posted on August 22, 2011 at 5:07pm by
Tiffany Gabbay
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NEW YORK (The Blaze/AP) — New York City prosecutors filed court papers Monday recommending dismissal of sexual assault charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was accused of attacking a hotel maid in May in a globally sensational case that eventually dissolved amid questions about the woman’s credibility.
The accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, and her attorney, Kenneth Thompson, met briefly with representatives of the Manhattan district attorney’s office to discuss the decision not to proceed with the prosecution.
Thompson didn’t say what had happened inside or reveal what his client was told, but he recited a short statement condemning prosecutors for their handling of the case.
“Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has denied the right of a woman to get justice in a rape case,” he said. “He has not only turned his back on this innocent victim. But he has also turned his back on the forensic, medical and other physical evidence in this case.”
A person familiar with the case earlier told The Associated Press that prosecutors had concerns about Diallo’s credibility and insufficient evidence of forced sexual encounter. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Diallo is also suing Strauss-Kahn, seeking to make him pay financially if not with his freedom, a move that the diplomat’s lawyers said also eroded her credibility.
Prosecutors filed paperwork with the court Monday recommending that the charges be dismissed. The document was not immediately made available to the public, so the district attorney’s reasons for asking for the dismissal were not known.
Strauss-Kahn is scheduled to go before a judge Tuesday. His lawyers, William Taylor and Benjamin Brafman, issued a statement saying that he and his family were grateful for the decision.
“We have maintained from the beginning of this case that our client is innocent,” they said. “We also maintained that there were many reasons to believe that Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s accuser was not credible.”
The case captured international attention as a seeming cauldron of sex, violence, power and politics: A promising French presidential contender, known in his homeland as “the Great Seducer,” accused of a brutal and contemptuous attack on an African immigrant who had come to clean his plush suite at the Sofitel hotel.
The stakes were high for Strauss-Kahn, who resigned his IMF post, spent nearly a week behind bars and then spent possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for house arrest, as well for Vance, who was handling the biggest case he has had during his 18 months in office.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested after Diallo, 32, said he chased her down and forced her to perform oral sex. Strauss-Kahn denied the allegations, and his lawyers have said anything that happened wasn’t forced.
Like many sexual assault cases, in which the accused and accuser are often the only eyewitnesses, the Strauss-Kahn case has hinged heavily on the woman’s believability.
Early on, prosecutors stressed that Diallo had provided “a compelling and unwavering story” replete with “very powerful details” and buttressed by forensic evidence; his semen was found on her uniform. The police commissioner said seasoned detectives had found her credible.
But then prosecutors said July 1 they’d found the maid had told them a series of troubling falsehoods, including a persuasive but phony account of having been gang-raped in her native Guinea. She said she was echoing a story she’d told to enhance her 2003 application for political asylum. She told interviewers she was raped in her homeland under other circumstances and embellished it to get herself and her 15-year-old daughter a chance at a better life in the U.S.
She also wasn’t consistent about what she did after her encounter with Strauss-Kahn, telling a grand jury she had hovered in a hallway when she actually returned to his and another room before consulting her boss, prosecutors said. She said the alleged discrepancy was a misunderstanding.
She also alluded to Strauss-Kahn’s wealth in a recorded phone conversation with a jailed friend, and her bank account had been a repository for tens of thousands of dollars she couldn’t explain, a law enforcement official has said.
She said a jailed man had used the bank account without telling her. As for the phone call, her lawyer, Kenneth Thompson, said she mentioned Strauss-Kahn’s money only to say that her alleged attacker was influential.
She sued Strauss-Kahn Aug. 8, seeking unspecified damages and promising to air other allegations that Strauss-Kahn accosted and attacked women in other locales.
His lawyers called her suit a meritless claim that proved she was out for money.
The Associated Press generally doesn’t name people who report being sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified or publicly identify themselves, as Diallo has done.
Meanwhile, Euronews reports that DSK could return to public office in France if and when the U.S. charges are dropped:
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Comments (35)
temple62
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 2:20pmWhat the old adage,”Once perceived as a slut, you’re always a slut”!
Report Post »temple62
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 2:19pmWhat a commencement address this pervert could deliver. See how I get ahead, I simply buy my opportunities as there is always some prosecutor, judge or cop eager to buy a new boat or send the wife to Paris!
Report Post »TxMadMac
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 2:02pmCome on people. It was all a set up. Now the IMF has who they wanted so they can turn him loose and pay her off ! Hello . Welcome to the real world boys and girls !
Report Post »rl
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 10:35amMONEY wins most of the time………
Report Post »roadhog
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 10:31amInvestigate the Pay Offs.
Report Post »Excalibur
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 10:17amReverse speech analysis indicates she is telling the truth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzbldhqjxis
Report Post »ddg7
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 8:42amI‘m not a fan of DSK but doesn’t this sound like a repeat of the Duke lacrosse players accuser. If the accuser is lying she should go to jail. DSK should go to jail because he’s a french socialist.
Report Post »INOGAWD
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 8:29pmMy thoughts exactlly !!!
Report Post »You got the cash you can make the dash !!!!!
Bonnieblue2A
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 8:24pmIt would appear that Michael Savage called this one correctly. The IMF and NWO simply needed to push Strauss-Kahn aside and get more obedient leadership in the puppet seat.
Report Post »robert
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 9:35pmAfter seeing the victim in this case it’s a mystery to me how anyone would want to rape somebody that looks like she does.
This goofball perp is disgusting. Heshould get life without parole for his bad taste.
Report Post »Mil-Dot
Posted on August 23, 2011 at 10:30amI agree with Robert, if you are going to rape somebody, at least choose somebody that is somewhat decent looking. She is a gold digging immigrant from Africa or some other 3rd world nation.
Report Post »lylejk
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 8:13pmThe dude’s all slime that is for sure, but this lady has a lot to answer for too. I say go back to France and not come back again. You got your get out of jail card so don’t risk it again. :)
Report Post »INOGAWD
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 8:32pmSend this POS back to France, and don’t come back !!
Report Post »SUPPLY_SIDE
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 7:48pm“Turns Out That DSK’s Swanky Hotel Suite Was Stained With The Semen Of Four Other Guys.” Sorry NY – Bedbugs and now this? Makes one want to stay home!
Report Post »jblaze
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 7:09pmWith all the stuff going on today could it have been a way to remove him from his position as head of the IMF?
Report Post »likwidlizard
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 6:23pmOf course they will drop the charges. It ALWAYS happens when the prosecutors, lawyers, and such mysteriously all got FREE PAID vacations for them and their families in the South of France. And besides, who in their right mind would chase down an ugly Guinea and make they perform hideous acts of sex. She only started squealing about the situation AFTER he refused to be blackmailed. We truly live in an evil world. Think about it.
Report Post »shazam3
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 7:57pmDid anyone even think for a minute that this guy would ever be procecuted. I’ll guarantee his law gang would make the NY procecutor pee his pants. If it was a setup then it did it’s job by him losing his job. The illegal, right or wrong needs to get a free ride home.
Report Post »roadhog
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 6:18pmWHO got Paid Off ???
Report Post »jocko
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 6:04pmAh, money and position. wins out every time! Just like Teddie Kennedy who got away with at a minimum, manslaughter.
There are no wrongs for the progressive elites – get used to it. Look dear Nancy and her government jets, Obamas flying in separate government planes. Like she couldn’t wait a couple of hours to leave. When Obama gets reelected or seizes power by executive order, the fascists of progressivism will really show you how it is done. They will make the Russia politburo look like amateurs.
Report Post »barber2
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 6:03pmJust another case of welfare fraud with all of our “redistributed” tax dollars! Just makes you want to agree to raise taxes, doesn’t it??
Report Post »65Mustang
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 6:01pmWhy should I “speak my mind” when nothing I have posted has been posted?
Report Post »chips1
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 6:15pmThe BLAZE only likes CHEVYS.
Report Post »65Mustang
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 6:00pmThe man is guilty…..God will be his judge.
Report Post »chipmunk
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 5:53pmI don’t like DSK & am glad he was booted from the IMF. I don’t like the IMF either, & it certainly should not be run by a socialist. (Including because that economic system is a proven failure.) & he’s obviously some kind of liar & douche bag. But that’s separate from the fact that this hotel maid is also a liar & a douche bag. At least DSK lives off France’s dole, while this recent uneducated immigrant is living off the US taxpayer’s dole. Why is she even here in this country? She does not need or deserve asylum & made up graphic lies to gain entry into the US. She has a history of prostitution & other unsavory behavior, & also filed fraudulent tax returns to gain tax credits (i.e.; taxpayer money paid out to her) & deductions she was ineligible for including falsely claiming more than one dependent. She lives in taxpayer subsidized housing (also, strangely in a building specifically set aside by a non-profit for former heroin & drug users). She & her daughter presumably receive free Medicaid healthcare. (oh, probably foodstamps too.) THAT, along with a full time job plus a free education, is her “better life” for her & her daughter. I’m sure it is better, but I for one & getting tired of pulling the wagon.
Report Post »& btw, her jail inmate buddies would have needed her bank name, account # AND routing # in order to wire what was >$100,000 into her account. That‘s another lie that someone ’just used her acct’ without her knowledge. She & daughter should be deported.
stashu394
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 5:45pmDistrict Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., son of Cyrus Vance, former Secretary of State under Carter, Trilateralist, CFR member, etc.
Report Post »C’mon, these globalists protect their own.
TeaPartyPatriot
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 5:44pm“Prosecutors: Drop Strauss-Kahn charges”
This piece of euro-trash then immediately hopped on a plane for Florida to party with American-trash casey anthony
Report Post »W@nd@
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 5:36pmIf you lie and you have no socialist friends to back you
Report Post »you cried wolf one too many times you lose…
Seems to me they both have a lousy track record.
orkydorky
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 5:52pmIt doesn’t matter what her record is, if he forced her, he’s nothing but rapist, but I suppose money and political pressure is far more important than justice!
Report Post »rabblechat
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 5:32pmAt least it didn’t end with this woman having an “accident”. Who ever though this guy would be convicted anyway.
I think its funny, they question this woman’s credibility, yet they don’t question DSK, who was the head of one of the biggest criminal organizations in the world.
Report Post »rodamaa
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 5:28pmPower corrupts and abosulte power corrupts absolutely. I smell a rat, a socialist rat to be precise.
Report Post »Bill from NJ
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 5:18pmPower and money,
Report Post »It must be really nice where you can buy your way out of any mess you get yourself into……
vennoye
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 5:25pmThis stunk to high heaven from the beginning!! All of our comments then said it didn’t add up. Money could have bought off the charges in the beginning..before they were ever filed. Powerful men have powerful enemies!! Guess he learned whatever lesson he needed to learn!! :-)
Report Post »This_Individual
Posted on August 22, 2011 at 5:28pmI’d like to have that problem!
Semper Fidelis.
Report Post »