There's still the two civil cases to be resolved.
Her lawyers might get a small settlement from the Post and it insurance company to go away however.
The French case is another matter though, and how it plays out will have nothing to do with how the French feel about America
Truth, justice and the DSK rape case: Don't lose heart -- the system appears to have worked
By Leslie Crocker Snyder
Thursday, August 25th 2011
Few crimes are more traumatic than rape. Few crime victims need more support from the moment the crime has been committed until the criminal justice process is complete - and often long after. Therefore, the recent acquittal in the "rape cops" trial and this week's dismissal of the charges in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case are extremely discouraging to many victims and other women.
As someone who has worked for and with rape victims for many years, I understand their feelings. But we live in a system of laws, laws which make us a civilized society, even though some individual case results may surprise or disgust us.
Why were the "rape cops" acquitted of all significant charges? The victim - for whom I have nothing but sympathy and who, I am convinced, was raped - was so intoxicated at all times during the recurring attacks that she did not make an ideal witness to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. As we all know, this is the extremely high standard of proof the prosecution must meet in every criminal case. And, sadly, jurors are not always fair to rape victims - especially those with any "issues."
As for Strauss-Kahn, theoretically I would like to have seen the prosecution proceed even in this extremely difficult case. Generally, a rape victim deserves her day in court regardless of what a jury might conclude. But the duty of a prosecutor is "to do justice," whether this means pursuing a case or asking a court to dismiss the charges. His or her ethical obligations are extremely and appropriately high.
Here the prosecutor conducted a lengthy investigation with experienced lawyers - and all concluded that the complainant, Nafissatou Diallo, had told so many inconsistent versions of what allegedly occurred and had lied so often, including about a prior gang rape which she ultimately admitted never occurred, that no one in the district attorney's office believed her beyond a reasonable doubt. Several of these lies were under oath, including to the grand jury.
If prosecutors no longer believed her beyond a reasonable doubt, they could not ask a jury to do so legally or ethically.
The American Bar Association has set forth criteria for prosecutors concerning the dismissal of criminal cases. Those criteria do not appear to preclude a prosecutor from pursuing a case in which he or she has a reasonable doubt or believes an acquittal likely, as long as there is legally sufficient admissible evidence and probable cause to believe the defendant committed the crime charged. But what decent prosecutor will prosecute a man whose guilt they do not believe in themselves beyond a reasonable doubt?
The sad truth, as the prosecutors themselves said, is that they don't know and we don't know what really happened at the Sofitel hotel on the day in question other than that a sexual encounter occurred. Only two people - one whose credibility is suspect and one who is not talking - know what happened. Was force used? It may well have been, but it apparently can never be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
The dismissal of the charges in no way means that Strauss-Kahn is innocent, no matter what spin his attorneys may attempt to attribute to it. It means only what it says: The case cannot be proven with credible evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.
Let us keep our perspective. It was only about 40 years ago that a woman's word in any sex crime case was not enough and corroboration of every element of the crime was required, an impossible burden to satisfy in most cases. Few rape suspects were indicted as a result, and even fewer were convicted. Rape trials themselves were a disaster for the victims, as they were often cross-examined brutally about their prior, often irrelevant, sex lives.
Now we have rape shield laws and extensive legal, medical, forensic and psychological support systems for victims. We have trained and experienced police and prosecutors who specialize in these terrible crimes. We understand that rape is a crime of violence and power and control, and that few rape complaints are fabricated. And often we have jurors who reach the right result.
We must continue to support rape victims and keep developing better ways to do so. They must know that their case will be handled fairly by all and prosecuted vigorously where appropriate. But let us not allow two unfortunate cases to discourage us or make us forget that the rule of law must always prevail. That rule of law, ultimately, is the foundation of our criminal justice system, a system that works - at least most of the time.
Snyder founded the first sex crimes prosecution unit in the country in the Manhattan district attorney's office and co-authored New York's rape shield law. She was a judge of the New York State Supreme Court, Criminal Term, for more than 20 years.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/08/25/2011-08-25_truth_justice_and_the_dsk_case_dont_lose_heart__the_system_appears_to_have_worke.html
Lawyers for Dominique Strauss-Kahn's accuser in French Court, charge IMF chief's mistress bribed
BY Linda Hervieux
DAILY NEWS WRITER
August 23rd 2011
PARIS - Lawyers for hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo said Tuesday they have launched a global hunt for women wronged by Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
"We are talking to many women," lawyer Douglas Wigdor told reporters in Paris. "I'm not at liberty to tell you how many, but there are many from all over the world."
Criminal charges against Strauss-Kahn were tossed out in Manhattan, but Diallo's lawyers are still moving forward with a civil case..
They're hoping to bolster the suit by digging up dirt on Strauss-Kahn and show that abusing women was his "modus operandi," Wigdor said.
One of those women was the target of a bribery attempt to get her to keep mum about a past fling with Strauss-Kahn, according to a criminal complaint filed in France on Tuesday.
Diallo's Paris attorney, Thibault de Montbrial, declined to identify the woman, who is from Sarcelles, a city outside Paris where Strauss-Kahn was mayor from 1995 to 1997.
Criminal complaints are not public in France before trial.
Montbrial alleges that an aide to the current mayor of Sarcelles, François Pupponi, asked a person close to the ex-mistress, "How much would it cost to keep her quiet?"
Pupponi, who is said to be a confidant of Strauss-Kahn, denied there was a bribery attempt.
Diallo's lawyers have joined forces with Tristane Banon, 32, the French writer who is suing Strauss-Kahn, 62, for allegedly trying to rape her during a 2003 interview.
"We will work together to ensure that Mr. Strauss-Kahn is held accountable for his conduct," Wigdor said.
He faulted Manhattan prosecutors for failing to question Banon about her encounter with Strauss-Kahn, saying it's proof they bungled the case.
Asked by skeptical French reporters about whether he is only after money, Wigdor said his job is "to see that Ms. Diallo is monetarily compensated."
In France criminal and civil trials are usually linked and American-sized financial settlements are rare. Wigdor would not put a dollar figure on the civil action.
"We will live with whatever a Bronx jury decides," he said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/08/23/2011-08-23_lawyers_for_dominique_strausskahns_accuser_in_french_court_charge_imf_chiefs_mis.html
.
.
.
Let us on both sides of the Atlantic rape is a crime, harassment is a crime and an improvement goal. From both sides, the tensions between men and women, resulting from emancipation, remain and are exacerbated at times. But while the United States, this coexistence seems always on the brink of war, under the watchful eye of lawyers ready to do the hands of estranged spouses, Latin Europe seems to be better protected from this scourge of an ancient culture conversation and tolerance to human weaknesses. The challenge of France, is to deal with the ambivalences of the heart, civilize the desire to from its impurities while respecting the privacy of individuals. In the U.S., sex is the medium through which every citizen is potentially the property of others. Privacy disappears, the need for transparency led to the triumph of hypocrisy and monitoring of all by each.
The disastrous effect of the case Strauss-Kahn, it is confirmed that the complainant did not tell the truth is that it will discredit the real victims suspected of lies and venality. Neither the media nor justice would grow up in this story even if the attorney Cyrus Vance was honest, from July to recognize the thinness of the case. Do not expect that in the event of dismissal, the major newspapers of the East Coast, who lynched the former director of the IMF before it is tried, will present their excuses. French tourists who go overseas, be careful, if you ever took the urge to frolic with one or a native, get yourself an official discharge: your partner, male or female, acknowledge in writing that you allowed to enjoy her body. We have a lot to learn from our American friends but certainly not the art of love .
PARIS - Lawyers for hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo said Tuesday they have launched a global hunt for women wronged by Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
"We are talking to many women," lawyer Douglas Wigdor told reporters in Paris. "I'm not at liberty to tell you how many, but there are many from all over the world."
Criminal charges against Strauss-Kahn were tossed out in Manhattan, but Diallo's lawyers are still moving forward with a civil case..
The dismissal of the charges in no way means that Strauss-Kahn is innocent, no matter what spin his attorneys may attempt to attribute to it. It means only what it says: The case cannot be proven with credible evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.
Well, why doesn't DSK grant interviews and tell his side of the story--his version of what happened in that hotel room?
The civil trial would be another opportunity for him to clear his name.
DSK's problem in terms of clearing his name are all the other stories that emerged during this case that indicated his behavior toward women isn't always all that great-
You, and the rest of the world, will never know exactly what happened in that hotel suite. She never got her day in court, but neither did he.
Nafissatou Diallo, the self-proclaimed “victim” in the sordid saga of a hotel maid’s false rape claim against former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, needs to be on an airplane back to her native Guinea as soon as the paperwork can be completed.
The case against Strauss-Kahn is history; a judge yesterday granted Manhattan DA Cy Vance’s bid to drop all charges.
That leaves open the question of how to deal with Diallo, whose very presence in America is based on an audacious lie.
A perjury prosecution would be best, but Vance is keeping mum on that.
Which leaves deportation.
Let’s be clear: We carry no brief for DSK -- a married 62-year-old man who, according to numerous accounts, can’t keep his pants zipped. In France, prosecutors are probing another charge of rape against him, brought by writer Tristane Banon.
But Vance’s office cites a “pattern of untruthfulness” by Diallo and says it no longer has “confidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty.”
“If we do not believe her,” prosecutors say, “we cannot ask a jury to do so.”
No argument there. No case, either.
“After an extensive investigation, it is clear that proof of two critical elements -- force and lack of consent -- would rest solely on the testimony of the complaining witness at trial,” the DA’s office wrote.
And she wasn’t credible.
So why did Vance move to indict DSK in the first place?
We understand that the DA feared his accused rapist might flee; indeed, DSK was nabbed aboard an Air France jet just before it was to depart for Paris -- and France has no extradition treaty with America.
But surely there were other options besides a rushed indictment -- like holding his passport, as some staffers reportedly sought. Clearly, Vance got ahead of himself early on, pushing too hard and too fast in a politically charged case.
Yet once the probe began, it soon became clear to Vance that Diallo was a fraud. The case fell apart -- and he did the absolute right thing by moving to have it dropped.
Then again, how could he not?
Diallo lied not only about her past, but also about the very facts of what happened between her and DSK.
“ ... She has not been truthful, on matters great and small, many pertaining to her background and some relating to the circumstances of the incident itself,” prosecutors wrote. Indeed, she:
* Lied to get into the country, claiming on her asylum bid that she’d been gang-raped in her native Guinea. She later admitted having fabricated the story because, her lawyer said, she wanted to flee her homeland and was encouraged to exaggerate her claims.
* Lied on her tax forms, claiming a fictitious second child as a dependent.
* Lied about her income to qualify for subsidized housing.
* Lied about her interest in making money off the case.
* Lived in an apartment for HIV/AIDS patients, as The Post first reported -- though she told investigators she wasn’t infected.
* And lied about the facts of the case itself -- claiming, for example, that she hid in the hallway near Strauss-Kahn’s hotel suite after the incident, when in fact she went on to clean two rooms (including his).
All told, prosecutors say she changed her story three times -- even making “fraudulent” statements while under oath. That’s far more than enough to drop a case that rests on her credibility.
In fact, it should be enough to prosecute her for perjury.
As for deportation, she fraudulently got a green card, and now admits having lied in order to skirt tax and housing laws.
Not everyone, of course, is happy with Vance’s decision to end the case. Demonstrators this week were out in force, bearing signs that asked “Does DNA Mean Nothing?” -- among other things.
But DNA showed only that sex had occurred, and DSK admitted it had; the only question was whether it was consensual.
It’s worth noting, too, that an allegation -- even one as serious as rape -- is not grounds for suspending due process.
Surely, Strauss-Kahn is no angel.
And Vance made mistakes.
But while the case against DSK ended as it should have, it leaves unsettled the fate of a woman who has forfeited the privilege of American residency.
She needs to go
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/no_longer_welcome_t7suy3KUG6mLTPqfFazVeI#ixzz1W7TkaTLs
PARIS - A few years ago, we were on a family beach vacation in Florida. After a swim, my two-year-old daughter took off her bathing suit. Suddenly, the summer visitors began looking at us sideways. A few minutes later, a sheriff’s deputy equipped with an arsenal that could destroy an entire city, arrived and shouted at us that we had to get our daughter dressed again if we didn’t want to get fined. My daughter, who thought it was a game, started to run. We ran after her…and the sheriff ran after us. Finally, we caught her and laughed out loud, but the big man in uniform didn’t. In Uncle Sam territory, to be naked on the beach is forbidden, even for babies.
North America, obviously, has a problem with sex that comes from its Protestant legacy, which also has it giving the whole world lessons in morality. To describe America as a Puritan country is not enough because it is a double-faced Puritanism, which shifts with change in attitudes, uses the vocabulary of freedom and coexists with a thriving porn industry. More precisely, this is a prurient Puritanism.
What was the real point of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Clinton cases? They were a perfect vehicle to condemn eroticism in order to be able to talk more about sex. For weeks, even months, American people licked their lips over every intimate detail: about felatio, sperm, genital organs -- always with a false indignation. The fact that the alleged victim’s lawyer Kenneth Thompson talked about the “assaulted” vagina of his client Nafissatou Diallo with obscene jubilation is a telltale sign of this phenomenon.
In the Bill Clinton case, can we really say that he was sanctioned because he lied more than because he had an affair with a White Houses’ intern? This is wrong of course because George W. Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a far more serious deception, but was not condemned for it. If he had slept with his assistant, he would have been punished. But murders are apparently less important than extra-marital affairs.
It seems like the American media establishement, so swift to condemn France through one of our representatives, has already forgotten the tortures in Abu Ghraib: there were naked men piled on top of one another, or force to masturbate under the orders of Lynndie England, a woman sergeant who was keeping some of them on a leash. (It’s well known since Nazism that women who possess power don’t behave better than men) Torture exists everywhere, even in democratic countries, but only a country which has a problem with its sexuality can dream up such abuse. Besides, one can be surprised that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who are suspected of corruption and allowing violent police questioning, were not sued after 2008 by an American justice system that is always ready to condemn any minor sexual affairs.
To punish France because it didn’t want to get involved in the war in Iraq, for the Roman Polanski case, for the law on Islamic headscarves and the niqab; to punish France as a recalcitrant country that persists in its loose attitudes is the ultimate meaning of the DSK case at a time when America is failing, and looking for easy scapegoats to be blamed for their decline. For instance, in the July 19 issue of Newsweek magazine, the correspondent Joan Buck explains to her readers the archaic sexuality of French people: In barbaric France, female journalists have sex with all politicians, because they want to, but also because they want to be sure to get the right sources. From the gas station to the office, cashiers and secretaries must offer a blow job to their employers to keep their job. To her, all French women are “salopes” (bitches or sluts).
A strange alliance
The US is home to a peculiar phenomenon that never happened in Europe: American feminists have allied with the very conservative American right. These two forces united in the name of different interests to stop what was achieved in the 1960’s and 1970’s in the field of women’s rights. Feminist intellectuals such as Joan Scott, an expert in French-bashing, have become propagandists for the United State State Department. They are in charge of promoting the American way of life. This explains the moral McCarthyism that prevails in American society when it comes to the issue of love, and which has been denounced by the more clear-sighted Americans for a long time.
Since the 1990’s, any foreign male professor who comes to the US to teach at University has to respect strict instructions: He has to keep the door open when he receives a student, unless the conversation is recorded; he can’t take the elevator with a student; and of course, he can’t have a relationship with a student from the University even if she is over 21 and even if it’s consensual -- otherwise he would be immediately expelled. Also with colleagues: one can’t have ambigious conversations, or use inappropriate words, and must commit themselves not to have sexual intercourse with a collegue unless the two get married.
What does that really mean? It is clearly a furious condemnation of sexual pleasures by criminalizing the heterosexual act. Every man is a rapist, every woman may be a victim. The flattering remark is a first step to harrassement, seduction is on the road to rape, gallantry is a euphemism to blur the man’s predatory moves. The flesh leads to corruption, desire is dangerous. Even if DSK was acquitted, he would remain guilty: his fault is inferred from his status. He is a rich, white European man. In other words, he is decadent. He is nothing but a compulsive attacker.
American politicians are also targeted by the media’s lack of discretion. The last two victims of this hunt were Anthony Weiner, a Democratic representative who was found guilty of sending pictures of his penis via Twitter to women he met online, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is the father of an illegitimate son he had with his maid.
Any American can one day or another be subjected to stringent checks of this democratic inquisition. In France, an extra-marital affair is better understood than in America where it it seen as nothing less than a crime. The marital betrayal is like a national betrayal. It’s a violation of a pact that binds American citizens.
Let’s be clear, on both sides of the Atlantic, a rape is a crime, harrassement is an offense. Everywhere, tensions between men and women, resulting from emancipation, prevail and sometimes intensify. But while in the US this coexistence always seems to be on the brink of a war, Europe seems more protected from this scourge thanks to an old tradition of conversation and tolerance of human weaknesses. France’s goal is to compromise with the heart’s ambivalence, “de-civilize” desire and respect people’s intimacy.
In the US, sexuality is the way from which each citizen potentially becomes the property of others. The private sphere disappears, transparency leads to hypocrisy and everybody watches everyone else.
The worst consequence of this DSK case is that, if it is confirmed that the complainant didn’t tell the truth, it would disqualify the real victims of rape who will be suspected of lying. Both the media and justice system will come out of this case with their stature reduced, even if the prosecutor Cyrus Vance honestly recognized from July that there were inconsistencies in the alleged victim’s version of events.
There’s little hope that after the judge dismissed the case, the biggest U.S. press organizations who lynched the former IMF Director before he was judged, would ever apologize.
To my fellow French who are planning to go to the United States: BE CAREFUL. If you ever want to flirt with an American citizen, male or female, you need to get an official document from them stipulating that you can enjoy their body. We have a lot to learn from our Americans friends, but certainly not the art of loving
Well, why doesn't DSK grant interviews and tell his side of the story--his version of what happened in that hotel room?
The civil trial would be another opportunity for him to clear his name.
There was evidence of a sexual encounter.
the Monstrous Regiment of Women is well out of control.
What was that? What has been offered under oath and been cross-examined by the defence? Even evidence that passes those tests is not always, or necessarily, reliable.
And as for reading "a quote from someone in France " you lose me there. The only thing that shows is what your interests are.
What is very very amusing is these quote are coming from either Americans or Englishmen/women living and working in France not Frenchmen/women.
Maybe one day, in the pitiless light of hindsight, it will become clear why a woman's false statements about her immigration status, made years ago, were deemed more pertinent to an accusation of attempted rape than the vaginal bruising she allegedly incurred during the encounter itself.
To be fair, it was not just the fact that Nafissatou Diallo made false claims about her background that undermined her credibility to the point that on Monday the Manhattan district attorney decided to tell the judge to drop the charges Diallo made against Dominique Strauss-Kahn. There were other factors, and not just those proffered by Nixon speechwriter Ben Stein, who argued – wrongly – that economists don't commit sex crimes, and, of course, friend to all famous male victims of the American justice system, Bernard-Henri Lévy. He insisted – also wrongly – that "grand hotels" always send in "a cleaning brigade".
Diallo has been shown to have told lies in her life, certainly. None of these lies, though, had anything to do with her version of what happened in room 2806 in the Sofitel, a version that has been backed up by forensic evidence.
First, her lie about her immigration status was that she had been – gotcha! – gang raped. But the reason she lied then was that she thought it would help her gain political asylum. Her motivation for doing so now is decidedly less clear. The much- repeated story about her telling a friend on the phone that she was planning to bilk Strauss-Kahn has since been rubbished by her lawyer as a poor translation, and anyway, her actions since suggest she is the world's worst blackmailer. When she waived her right to anonymity, she not only gave the defence more material to mine for inconsistencies but gained no money and risked – heck, guaranteed – damaging her personal reputation and employment prospects for life. Moreover, she sure won't be able to try that ol' rape accusation trick on any other unsuspecting man. She did not think this plan through.
Her recall (under great emotional stress, whether she was lying or not) of the chronology of what happened precisely after the alleged assault altered slightly and that was offered up as further proof of her unreliability and, as far as I know, there is no definitive guide to how anyone behaves after a sexual assault.
A French attorney told the Guardian on Monday that "It's not that he [the DA] doesn't believe her, it's that he doesn't believe her to be a good victim." A woman who gets intoxicated can be raped. Prostitutes can be raped. And a poor woman who has told lies can be raped. In fact, it is often the women who "don't make good victims" who are most at risk because they are the most vulnerable, and it is these women who are least likely to be listened to.
Diallo's past proved to be more incriminating than Strauss-Kahn's, a man with an infamously predatory reputation towards women, and who has since been accused of another sexual assault by a French writer. In an interview with the Swiss magazine L'illustré, a former mistress of Strauss-Kahn said that Diallo's description of how he grabbed her "encouraged me to believe this woman". But all too often in rape cases, the principle of presumption of innocence for the accused tips into assumption of guilt for the accuser.
Rape accusations – like abortions, or becoming a single mother – are not something most women do for a lark, squeezing them in between mani-pedis and Pilates or, in the case of Diallo, cleaning another man's toilet. That Diallo lied about a rape in order to gain asylum in America where she has since been so humiliated by a "sexual encounter" is just one of the bitter ironies here.
Despite the efforts of the DA and Strauss-Kahn's defence team, a trial most certainly did happen: it just happened to be a trial of the accuser rather than the accused. Strauss-Khan has denied the allegations, and what occurred in room 2806 will never be known. What has been proved, on an international scale, is that only women who have led lives as sheltered as Rapunzel and have memory recall as robotic as computers are capable of being raped. The rest are money- grabbing sluts with vaginal bruising.
The F-bomb is a Linguistic Bingo election winner
While Linguistic Bingo may lack the drama of a good game of Cluedo, it can be at least as instructive as The Game of Life. It involves predicting words that will be uttered during an event – prime ministerial press conferences after national rioting ("society", "single mothers", "punish", etc), say, or Celebrity Big Brother ("me", "me", "me") – and ticking them off accordingly. So with the US presidential election underway, let's rack up the Linguistic Bingo. Maybe it will distract from the homophobia and misogyny that is now such a cornerstone of the Republican party's campaign strategy.
There's "job creation", a cod-English term which apparently sponsors Michele Bachmann, judging from her fondness for it. Then there are all the predictable ones, such as "economy growth", "immigration disaster" and "take our country back". (Did these people never watch Sesame Street? Learn to share, GOP!)
But, easily, the word to listen out for most of all is "folks". Oh boy, American politicians – Democrats and Republicans – love dropping the F-bomb! It conjures up simple, humble people who probably look like they've stepped out of American Gothic. It is the Plumber Joe of vocabulary, shorthand to prove the speaker is really in touch with the concerns of Real America, no matter how many houses they have. And in an election in which millionaire and billionaire GOP candidates are asking rural America to vote for them to keep their taxes low, this word – spoken through expensively whitened teeth – is a surefire Linguistic Bingo winner.
