Following Dominique Strauss-Kahn's release from house arrest last Friday, we were inundated with claims from the Post's sources that his accuser was a lying prostitute who was placed in the Sofitel by her union as an "earner" and had continued to have sex for money in the hotel room provided for her by the DA's office. Now, a "top investigator in the case" tells the Post it is "a certainty" that the case will be dismissed, noting, "We all know this case is not sustainable…She is not to be believed in anything that comes out of her mouth." The source continues: "Did [Strauss-Kahn] use force? Was there actually a crime? I don't think we'll ever know."
Charges may be dropped at Strauss-Kahn's next court hearing in two weeks, or even sooner, as Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr. is scheduled to meet with the defense team tomorrow morning. The Times has obtained a copy of the accuser's first recorded account of the incident to a counselor at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, the version that sources in the Post article identify as the "rock solid" story that was "one-hundred-percent consistent" for over a month. After being told that the room was empty, the maid entered the room to find a man, "naked, with 'white hair,' locked the door behind her and pushed her onto the bed."
Strauss-Kahn then allegedly "put his penis into her mouth briefly," before pulling her towards the bathroom and grabbing her crotch as she resisted and told him to stop. She fell to the floor, and the report states that Strauss-Kahn "forced her to perform oral sex, grabbing her by the hair and controlling her head with force." After he ejaculated, the woman reportedly "spit onto the carpet" as he got dressed and left the room. According to the report Strauss-Kahn "said nothing to her during the incident."
Prosecutors noted that this account is different from what she told a grand jury, which was that she left the room and waited in the hallway for Strauss-Kahn to leave. She later stated that she cleaned Strauss-Kahn's room, then another room before reporting the incident. The Post's "defense sources" state that Strauss-Kahn was most likely "engaged in a sex-for-money exchange…with no force involved—and she turned against him only when he stiffed her."
32-year-old French writer Tristane Banon has claimed that Strauss-Kahn assaulted her in 2002, and "opened my bra, tried to open my jeans…It finished very badly." But she was dissuaded from pressing charges by her mother, who is a a prominent Socialist Party official. Now, she says she will pursue the case, despite members from Strauss-Kahn's camp claiming they will counter-sue for slander.
Despite legal sources calling Cyrus Vance's refusal to fight Strauss-Kahn's release as "courageous," the case will prove cold comfort to victims of sexual assault. Lead prosecutor in the Strauss-Kahn case, Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, told the Times that the DA's office is "doing our job. We don't get paid by indictment. We don't get paid by convictions. We get paid to do the right thing."
