News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Aug. 24, 2011: The man many call DSK is free after being accused of rape here in New York City by an immigrant hotel maid.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief and French Presidential hopeful, had charges of sexual assault dismissed against him Tuesday after a New York appeals court denied a request for a special prosecutor in the case.
The accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, 33, and her lawyer had called for a special prosecutor because they felt Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R Vance was biased. But the appeals court on Wednesday agreed there was no legal basis for a special prosecutor, paving the way for DSK to be free.
State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus had said he would dismiss the charges, pending the ruling from the appeals court, which came back yesterday. On Tuesday, prosecutors argued the case should be dismissed because they did not have faith in the credibility of the hotel worker who accused Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her in his luxury suite in May.
Prosecutors conceded that DNA evidence showed sexual contact but not necessarily a forced encounter. They also found medical findings inconclusive.
They added that Diallo, the cleaner at New York’s Sofitel Hotel who said Strauss-Kahn had forced her to perform oral sex on May 14 “has not been truthful on matters great and small.”
A civil case against Strauss-Kahn by Diallo is still pending.
