Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been released on his own recognizance and is, according to the The New York Times much closer to have the most serious charges against him dropped. But this turn of events is not because prosecutors no longer believe the woman wasn’t attacked. Oh no, the Times reports,
“Prosecutors said they still believed Mr. Strauss-Kahn had forced the woman into sex… “
According to the sources, the victim is alleged to have not told the truth about her life leading up to the attack and what happened in the immediate aftermath of it:
“Prosecutors disclosed that the woman had admitted lying in her application for asylum from Guinea; according to the letter, she ‘fabricated the statement with the assistance of a male who provided her with a cassette recording’ that she memorized. She also said that her claim that she had been the victim of a gang rape in Guinea was also a lie.
The woman also acknowledged that she had misrepresented her income to qualify for her housing, and had declared a friend’s child — in addition to her own daughter — as a dependent on tax returns to increase her tax refund.
Her asylum application is inconsistent with the story she told police; she had hundreds of thousands of dollars deposited into her bank account, making her appear to be a go between for laundering drug money, etc.)”
Lying to the police about this sort of thing is without question a bad strategy. I understand that these inconsistencies and her association with an incarcerated drug dealer leave her credibility in tatters, making it easy for the defense to turn the case into “Whom do you believe? The former head of the IMF or a lying chambermaid who associates with convicted drug dealers?” The defense will have a field day with this information at trial in raising reasonable doubt. The prosecutors don’t want to lose–it would look bad for them at election time–so they’ll blame the victim and walk away from this as quickly as possible, hoping that none of it sticks to them for very long. Good luck with that.
The physical evidence is said to support the crux of what the housekeeper has alleged: She was set upon by a naked DSK against her will and sexually assaulted. So we’re left with a victim of an attack and a predator (alleged predator?) out walking the streets.
One is left to think that Monsieur Strauss-Kahn was extremely fortunate in his choice of victims. The failure to bring DSK to justice on those charges will leave those looking to perpetrate similar crimes advised to find equally untrustworthy victims for themselves.
Sadly, ’twas was ever thus.
The Local Paper 