Is the Head of the IMF a Sex Criminal?

Why has DSK not got his passport back yet? If the cleaning woman's civil action prevents that then she has him under house arrest.

As a general rule, civil tort lawsuits are filed to seek damages, and in that respect, the one lodged Monday by Nafissatou Diallo, the hotel maid who has accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault, is no different.

But Ms. Diallo, trying to fend off accusations by Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers that she is trying to profit off the incident, has attempted to cast herself instead through her complaint, filed by her lawyer Kenneth Thompson in New York State Supreme Court in the Bronx, as someone who is representing a cause.

Lawyers not involved in the case say that language in the complaint is atypical, more akin to a class-action suit than a personal injury case like the one she has launched.

In the lawsuit, Ms. Diallo says she wants “to stand up for all women who have been raped, sexually assaulted and/or abused throughout the world but who are too afraid to speak out.”

Before requesting monetary damages, Ms. Diallo makes what some lawyers said is an unusual request for a civil tort case – and one that is unlikely to succeed – for an injunction and order “permanently restraining Defendant from engaging in such unlawful conduct.”

“This seems to be a very odd thing to request in a civil suit of this kind,” said Roland Riopelle, a criminal defense lawyer in Manhattan. “I don’t know what standing she has to sue for a permanent injunction.”

Amy Marion, a Long Island-based lawyer who often files civil suits, said that to ask a court “to stop someone from doing behavior … it’s not placed anywhere in the law that the judge could even have jurisdiction over him to do that.”

Nafissatou Diallo might be accusing Dominque Strauss-Kahn of committing a crime in Manhattan, but she filed her civil suit in the Bronx, where she lives. That was probably a canny move, say legal experts. Juries in the borough tend to be far more sympathetic to plaintiffs, and award far higher payouts than in, say, Manhattan. The Post cites an unsourced stat that, at one time, the average payout in the Bronx was $5 million, compared with $1 million in Manhattan.

"The Bronx civil jury is the greatest tool of wealth redistribution since the Red Army," said civil-rights lawyer Ron Kuby. "As a purported socialist, DSK shouldn't mind the venue," Kuby quipped.

(The Post is still having a hard time deciding whom it dislikes more in the case, apparently.)

A jury of Diallo's peers in the Bronx would probably be closer to just that — her peers: other immigrants, more minorities, and less wealthy than it might be in Manhattan. It's likely that such a group would be more sympathetic to her story — though,on the other hand, news reports explaining the "Bronx effect" don't do her legal team any great service in trying to counteract the image of Diallo as a gold-digger.

DSK's lawyers, meanwhile, will probably file to have the suit moved to federal court in Manhattan or even Westchester, where a jury would probably be even whiter and wealthier. Such a maneuver might be the most naked acknowledgement yet of the class and race issues that have been swirling around the case since the outset.

As the criminal sexual assault charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn remain in limbo until his next court hearing on August 23, his accuser, Nafissatou Diallo filed a civil suit against Strauss-Kahn on Monday detailing the alleged "violent, sadistic attack." Perhaps the most important part of the lawsuit is where she filed it: in the Bronx. "There isn't a worse forum in the United States for Dominique Strauss-Kahn than the Bronx," an ex-prosecutor tells the Daily News, describing what some in the bar believe to the the "Bronx effect—a long-held notion that Bronx jurors are more generous to plaintiffs than those in other boroughs."
Famed criminal defense and civil rights attorney Ron Kuby tells the paper that, "The Bronx is a poor community that has been oppressed for generations. The Bronx juror doesn't mind redistributing the wealth of those…oppressors." He has an even juicier quote for the Post: "The Bronx civil jury is the greatest tool of wealth distribution since the Red Army." Right. Or because she lives in the Bronx, she prefers to be judged by a jury of her peers.
Whatever the case, a 2002 study conducted by the Texas Law Review showed that amounts awarded by juries in the Bronx were no greater than in any other boroughs. In the trial, 6 jurors will have to determine whether there is a "preponderance of evidence" to prove guilt, not "beyond a reasonable doubt." But with Strauss-Kahn's wife's vast fortune, he could delay the case from coming to trial for many years.

DSK has again said that he will plead quilty to nothing because he did nothing wrong.

PARIS (AP) -- The hotel maid who accused former International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault feels "abandoned" by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, her attorney said Sunday.

In an interview with France's RTL radio that comes a day after he told The New York Times he feared Vance would dismiss the charges against Strauss-Kahn, lawyer Kenneth Thompson said his client, Nassifatou Diallo "is hurt, she is depressed.

"Ms. Diallo feels abandoned by the Manhattan district attorney," Thompson said, adding that questions about Diallo's credibility as a witness have made her feel "that she's being investigated more than Strauss-Kahn."

Diallo and her 15-year-old daughter "cry themselves to sleep because their lives are in shambles because of what happened," he said.

The Manhattan DA's Office will ask a judge to dismiss all charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn when he appears in court Tuesday, The Post has learned.
Prosecutors are poised to file what's called a Dismissal On Recommendation motion, which will say the indictment against the frisky Frenchman cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt because of credibility problems with the sole witness in the case, Strauss-Kahn's hotel-maid accuser.
Prosecution sources said the motion, also called a Recommendation for Dismissal, will be lengthy, thorough and carefully crafted.

As for his reelection prospects, the Times spoke to several lawyers and political observers who said Vance needs to clearly explain his actions in the DSK case and, more important, avoid other embarrassing instances of overreach.