Dominique Strauss-Kahn case falls apart

Parent Cafe
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<p>I originally thought that he was guilty when I heard about the evidence of this case but I couldn’t figure out why someone so wealthy would do this sort of thing. It appears that the prosecution believes that it was either consensual, for pay, or an extortion plot now.</p>

<p>The alleged victim is standing by her story that she was raped but she’s been caught in a number of lies and unseemly behavior and associations.</p>

<p>One guy that I sometimes listen to on the radio stated that he was sure that this was some kind of hoax. I didn’t agree with him at the time but it’s starting to look more like he was right.</p>

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<p>I am hugely disappointed that the accuser has been caught in some lies. It doesn’t mean DSK didn’t do it, but it means he won’t be found guilty.</p>

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<p>Whether he did it or not, there is no way the case can go forward now.</p>

<p>Many baffling aspects. He seems to acknowledge sexual contact, but claims that there was no force. Would a hotel maid have time to have sex during her rounds, when her entry/exit from rooms are tracked, and clearly she would be expected to clean X number of rooms per hour? </p>

<p>The accuser is supposed to have been involved in drugs/money laundering, etc. If this is true, then why did she work as a hotel maid, a difficult and poorly paid job?</p>

<p>Apparently, she lied about having been raped on her immigration forms. Perhaps this is something immigrants sometimes do to show persecution/danger in their home country? In any case, if she lied about rape before, there is no way she can be considered credible now. </p>

<p>I was trying hard not to jump to the conclusion that DSK was guilty, having been fooled by the Duke lacrosse case. I think I even posted something to this effect on the other thread. But the police seemed so sure.</p>

<p>At the time he was arrested, I saw some speculation on the web that his wealthy wife would try to pay off the accuser, perhaps through her family in Guinea. I wonder whether this is what happened? </p>

<p>There was also speculation that the whole thing was rigged for political reasons. It seemed unlikely at the time, and still seems unlikely to me. How would French politicians arrange for an African immigrant hotel maid in NYC to do this?</p>

<p>I’m sure the French newspapers are going crazy now. They were going crazy before when he was arrested.</p>

<p>Where is mom2collegekids? She made quite a few insightful comments on the Casey Anthony thread.</p>

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<p>“There was also speculation that the whole thing was rigged for political reasons. It seemed unlikely at the time, and still seems unlikely to me. How would French politicians arrange for an African immigrant hotel maid in NYC to do this?”</p>

<p>My H was a strong supporter of this theory (still thought that DSK was a sleazeball). Guinea was a French colony at one point, and there is a lot of African immigrants in France…</p>

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<p>DSK predicted publicly, shortly before this incident, that his opponents would trump up a rape accusation. Why would he engage in sex with any stranger (either by force or not) if he was concerned about this?</p>

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<p>Uhhm… A few glasses of wine… A womanizer… Just add a woman…</p>

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<p>Didn’t this happen in the morning, or mid-day? I’m not sure any wine was involved!</p>

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<p>I believe BCEagle’s perception of the prosecution’s thinking is inaccurate. It seems to me that the prosecution still thinks the assault may have happened (there isn’t even a suggestion that there was no sexual contact), but that the alleged victim has so many credibility issues now that what actually happened is almost irrelevant. I think this is just another example of the principle that it’s almost impossible to convict anyone of rape or sexual assault unless the victim is practically a saint. And that the DA’s office doesn’t like to take cases to trial unless they’re slam dunks. The complainant obviously has many credibility issues. But I still don’t get the impression that any of them directly relate to the details of the alleged assault itself. Someone who knows jailed drug dealers and turns to them for advice can be a rape victim too. I haven’t seen anything to the effect that in her conversations with the guy in jail, she said she made anything up.</p>

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<p>I think the major problem is that she previously lied about having been raped. I agree that the rape may have happened as she said, but no jury is going to convict based on her word.</p>

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<p>The news accounts I’m reading say she lied to get political asylum in the US and the lie involved a false claim that she was raped. So, the prosecutors think her credibility is doubtful, since she committed perjury before. </p>

<p>It doesn’t sound as if the prosecutors think she is lying about being raped THIS time.</p>

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<p>Agree with DonnaL.</p>

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<p>You could argue that because she committed perjury on her immigration forms, that she wouldn’t be lying about rape now. After all, if you lied on your immigration forms, wouldn’t you just want to stay far away from the authorities so that your lie wouldn’t be examined or questioned. Now she risks deportation.</p>

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<p>Okay…just read the NY Times version. It says she claimed that she immediately reported the rape, but she didn’t. She cleaned a room, went back and cleaned DSK’s room, and THEN reported the rape. So, that really weakens the case. </p>

<p>She also lied to get housing–reporting an extra dependent and it looks like her bank account may have been used to deposit drug proceeds. </p>

<p>So, I wouldn’t go so far as to say a woman has to be a saint to report a rape, but I think Donna has it right…</p>

<p>DSK originally denied he had sexual contact with her. The physical evidence he did so is reportedly conclusive, so he changed his story and said it was consensual. </p>

<p>The case is shot–it’s unlikely that any jury could find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If he really did it, this is a shame.</p>

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<p>I totally agree with you all and sickened that the defense won this case. It was all about their fear tactic. Brafman is the ultimate pro at his cross examinations and digging into the victim’s past and making that the case. Sadly, that is exactly what has happened. Regardless of whether or not her actions before DSK commited his rape had anything to do with the case, she was doomed. And the prosecutors? One after the other has quit their associations with this case, from the head of the dept (who is married to Brafman’s colleague) to the next in line. </p>

<p>I believed he raped the woman and got away with it and it happened before too. I don’t call that a womanizer.</p>

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<p>That was something that I read on a news site.</p>

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<p>For me, the bigger shame about all of this is that the next time any woman alleges she was sexually assaulted by a man, her credibility will be in doubt. It’s so – so – 1970s.</p>

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<p>I, too, find it likely that this was not consensual, but that he will get off because she is not a saint, has lied before, and has unsavory contacts/friends.</p>

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<p>Although forensic tests found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between Mr Strauss-Kahn and the woman, prosecutors now do not believe much of what the accuser has told them about the circumstances or about herself, the The New York Times reports.</p>

<p>[BBC</a> News - Dominique Strauss-Kahn: ‘Doubts’ on maid’s credibility](<a href=“http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13986970]BBC”>Dominique Strauss-Kahn: 'Doubts' on maid's credibility - BBC News)</p>

<p>But from the beginning, Strauss-Kahn’s attorneys have claimed to have the hotel encounter wasn’t forcible, and that they have unreleased information that could “gravely undermine the credibility” of the housekeeper. The defense was using private investigators to aggressively check out the victim’s background and her story, but the Times reported that it was investigators for the prosecution who uncovered discrepancies.</p>

<p>[Strauss-Kahn</a> accuser’s credibility in focus - CBS News](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/01/national/main20076029.shtml]Strauss-Kahn”>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/01/national/main20076029.shtml)</p>

<p>Good balanced overview of the situation</p>

<p>[5</a> Ways to Think About The Times’ Strauss-Kahn Story - Andrew Cohen - National - The Atlantic](<a href=“5 Ways to Think About The Times' Strauss-Kahn Story - The Atlantic”>5 Ways to Think About The Times' Strauss-Kahn Story - The Atlantic)</p>

<p>Update at 12:16 p.m. ET: USA TODAY’s Kevin McCoy, who was in the courtroom, says one of the prosecutors told the judge there were “substantial credibility issues” with the hotel maid’s account of the alleged sexual assault.</p>

<p>The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office says the charges against Strauss-Kahn will remain in place while intensive investigation of the case continues.</p>

<p>Forensic evidence supports the maid’s claim, says Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon.</p>

<p>[Court</a> ends house arrest for former IMF chief -](<a href=“Court ends house arrest for former IMF chief”>Court ends house arrest for former IMF chief)</p>

<p>An attorney representing the housekeeper, Kenneth Thompson, said outside the courtroom Friday that medical evidence supports the chambermaid’s account and the charges against Strauss-Kahn. The woman told police that Strauss-Kahn chased her down, tried to pull down her pantyhose and forced her to perform oral sex before she broke free.</p>

<p>[Strauss-Kahn</a> Is Released From House Arrest : NPR](<a href=“Strauss-Kahn Is Released From House Arrest : NPR”>Strauss-Kahn Is Released From House Arrest : NPR)</p>

<p>[It seems to me that there would be physical evidence outside bodily fluids to corroborate this but nothing outside of the DNA evidence has been released]</p>

<p>The news comes after weeks of speculation in which some legal experts had said the woman’s case has started to look shakey. Her original lawyer, Jeffrey Shapiro, and renowned civil rights lawyer, Norman Siegel, are no longer working with the woman and have declined to comment about the background to the decisons.</p>

<p>Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz told Newsweek earlier this month that he believed the woman’s lawyers were working with Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers and looking to broker a deal.</p>

<p>Dershowitz said: “Clearly the defendant wants to avoid trial and wants to see if he can work out a deal that’s acceptable to him. And my sense is that the victim would like a big payday. Why does she want to make a deal now? Why not wait until the conviction, and then sue? [Because] the defendant doesn’t have much money. All the money is his wife’s money. And if you win a suit-let’s assume she wins a $10m judgment against him. She’s not going to collect it. He’ll go bankrupt. Whereas if she settles the case, the wife pays up. So the difference is between getting, say, a million right now from the wife, or $10m from the husband which the lawyer has to spend the rest of his life chasing.”</p>

<p>[Strauss-Kahn</a> case is ‘close to collapse’, say reports | World news | guardian.co.uk](<a href=“http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/01/dominique-strauss-kahn-case-close-collapse-new-york-times]Strauss-Kahn”>Strauss-Kahn case is 'close to collapse', say reports | Dominique Strauss-Kahn | The Guardian)</p>

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<p>Unfortunately, Very Happy, it’s already the case that the credibility of any woman making such an allegation is cast in doubt in a way that very rarely happens to victims of other crimes. The more “newsworthy” the story, and the more famous the alleged attacker, the more people call her a liar. (Just look at how many people are still defending Roman Polanski after all these years, even though his victim was what, 13 at the time?) I’m not sure things have gotten <em>that</em> much better in that respect since the 1970’s, despite the passage of rape shield laws, etc.</p>

<p>But we’ve already had at least one contentious thread about this issue not so long ago, so I’ll say no more. Because given whose thread this is, it may well happen again and I have no desire to be a part of another discussion of that kind.</p>

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<p>And although prosecutors said they still believe that a nonconsensual act had occurred in the Sofitel New York, they acknowledged publicly for the first time that the case was not as strong as initially suggested. </p>

<p>From Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s first court appearance on May 16, Mr. Vance’s office expressed extreme confidence in its case. At that hearing, an assistant district attorney said that “the victim provided very powerful details consistent with violent sexual assault committed by the defendant.” </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/02/nyregion/new-yorkers-and-french-await-latest-dominique-strauss-kahn-legal-turn.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/02/nyregion/new-yorkers-and-french-await-latest-dominique-strauss-kahn-legal-turn.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>(CBS/AP) </p>

<p>The hotel maid who accused former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault admitted that she lied to a grand jury about the events surrounding the alleged attack, according to a letter sent from prosecutors to Strauss-Kahn’s defense team.</p>

<p>The 32-year-old woman from Guinea accused Strauss-Kahn of chasing her through his luxury suite in May, trying to pull down her pantyhose and forcing her to perform oral sex.</p>

<p>Strauss-Kahn’s semen was found on the woman’s dress and she reported the alleged assault, but not as quickly as first thought. In a letter dated June 30, prosecutors that she admitted that she cleaned another room following the encounter with the French politician and then returned to Strauss-Kahn’s room and cleaned that as well, contradicting what she told the grand jury. </p>

<p>[DA:</a> Strauss-Kahn accuser cleaned after encounter - CBS News](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/01/national/main20076147.shtml]DA:”>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/01/national/main20076147.shtml)</p>

<p>[Did she commit perjury?]</p>