The New York Times
May 17, 2011
I.M.F. Chief May Claim Consensual Sex as a Defense
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
As Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, spent his first full day on Rikers Island, the hotel housekeeper who accused him of sexual assault was struggling with what her lawyer said was a life upended by the case.
The woman, 32, a widowed immigrant from Guinea who was granted asylum seven years ago, has not been publicly identified by the authorities in New York and has made no public statements about what prosecutors say was an attack by Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, a Frenchman, as she prepared to clean his hotel room on Saturday.
But her lawyer said she had been unable to return to her job at the Sofitel New York or to her home, as both had attracted swarms of international news media. In short, the case has been devastating, the lawyer, Jeffrey J. Shapiro, said in an interview, keeping his client from her life, her routines and even her 15-year-old daughter.
And as she remained in seclusion, there were suggestions that Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a powerful, wealthy politician who was widely regarded as a strong candidate to run against the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, next year, would put forward a defense that any sex would have been consensual.
During a hearing on Monday in Criminal Court in Manhattan, a lawyer for Mr. Strauss-Kahn, Benjamin Brafman, told a judge he believed the “forensic evidence” was “not consistent with forcible encounter.”
Mr. Brafman did not disclose what forensic evidence he was referring to, or even if he had been apprised about what forensic evidence the prosecution had collected. Even so, that statement seemed to suggest the defense may acknowledge that a sexual encounter had occurred.
Indeed, on Tuesday, a person briefed on the case said the defense believed that any sex act may have been consensual.
That elicited an angry response from the woman’s lawyer. He dismissed any suggestion that the housekeeper had agreed to have sex with Mr. Strauss-Kahn.
“There is no question this was not consensual — she was assaulted and she had to escape from him, which is why when she finally got out of the room, she reported it to security immediately,” Mr. Shapiro said. “It doesn’t matter what Mr. Brafman says, and it doesn’t matter what the defendant says. Her story is her story, which she has told to everyone who asked her, and she is telling the truth. She has no agenda.”
Mr. Shapiro said his client “did not even know who this guy was” until she saw news accounts, adding, “She is a simple housekeeper who was going into a room to clean a room.”
The woman, whose name has been reported in the French news media, emigrated from Guinea with her daughter, leaving that country under what Mr. Shapiro said he understood were “difficult circumstances.” The lawyer said she sought and was granted asylum in the United States, although he said he was unsure of her immigration status.
The woman, who speaks French and some English, is a widow, though the lawyer said he was unaware of the timing or the circumstances of her husband’s death.
Mr. Shapiro said his client was very proud of her job, which she had held for three years, and the ability it gave her to support herself and her daughter.
“She would have done nothing to jeopardize this job,” he said. “She needs this job; this job was her lifeline. She is not a woman of resources; she is not a woman of pretense.”
His client, he said, has enormous pride, and is unsure what her life will be like going forward.
“The fact of the matter is this is a situation that she didn’t choose,” the lawyer said. “She’s been victimized not only by what happened in that hotel room but by the fact that her life has been taken away from her for who knows how long.”
No lawsuit, he said, had been considered or discussed.
A law enforcement official said, meanwhile, that “more than one” woman had contacted investigators to suggest they had been sexually assaulted by Mr. Strauss-Kahn, but officials were still determining whether they would go to France to investigate.
If Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers were to argue at trial that the activity was consensual, such a defense may hinge on the credibility of the accuser. The task of looking into her background, as well as examining weaknesses in her account, would fall to the defense lawyers and investigators they have hired from the firm Guidepost Solutions.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s defense team is likely to be back in Criminal Court on Friday, when a grand jury is expected to hand up an indictment against him. If an indictment is not issued this week, he would be eligible for immediate release.
A Criminal Court judge, Melissa C. Jackson, has already refused Mr. Strauss-Kahn bail, although his defense team is free to seek bail from a higher-ranking judge in State Supreme Court. Mr. Strauss-Kahn was placed on suicide watch on Tuesday, according to a law enforcement official. The official said the action, which will put him under closer supervision, was taken as a result of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s intake evaluation, which was based on the nature of the charges, whether he had ever been in jail before and other factors, rather than on any specific threat or attempt.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn had one visitor on Tuesday, but correction officials would not disclose the person’s identity.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn was being held in protective custody in the West Facility at Rikers because there was room there to give him a wing to himself, an official said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/18/nyregion/strauss-kahn-may-claim-consensual-sex-as-defense.html?_r=2