By this evening, Dominique Strauss-Kahn could be sitting in first class with a glass of wine on a flight to France. Prosecutors filed papers yesterday requesting the judge drop sexual assault charges against the former International Monetary Fund head.
Strauss-Kahn is due to appear in Manhattan Supreme Court at 11:30 this morning, where a judge is widely expected to agree to drop the charges.
“It’s the end of the road,” said former city prosecutor Julie Block.
The attorney who represents the maid accusing Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape is fighting in a last-minute attempt to keep the case alive. Kenneth Thompson filed a motion yesterday requesting a special prosecutor be brought in. But legal experts say it’s a desperate attempt to save a dying case.
“That’s just silly talk,” former Brooklyn prosecutor Michael Weinstock told Metro. “Not a chance.”
Prosecutors said holes in the maid’s story and a murky history led them to believe she would not be a strong enough witness to continue with the case.
“If we do not believe her beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so,” prosecutors said of the maid in documents submitted to the judge yesterday. They said they found evidence that DSK engaged “in a hurried, sexual encounter with the complaintant”?— but that it was not a forcible encounter.
Lack of respect from DA?
Thompson said yesterday that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance “sabotaged” the prosecution and showed “outright disrespect” toward his client. Even if the maid pursues the civil lawsuit she filed earlier this month against Strauss-Kahn, the Frenchman could easily fight that battle through lawyers from France, Weinstock said.
Protests to support maid
Council-woman Letitia James and women’s advocates rallied yesterday afternoon at the Manhattan courthouse in support of the accuser. The woman “deserves her day in court,” said Sonia Ossorio, director of the National Organization for Women. “Despite all the lies, innuendo and slander directed towards her, her allegation is credible.”
