Is the Head of the IMF a Sex Criminal?

Jesus, it was not ever dismissed...how the **** do you figure that he got the nickname "the great seducer"?

Have you had a few too many cocktails tonight?
We are one fact away from this showing the other side of the coin, that being a disgrace of America. Let's see how the presentation to the judge goes tomorrow.

Not at all. The delay is because they were doing things like taking DNA samples and scrapings from under Strauss-Kahn's fingernails. They are gathering forensic evidence--which they can use against him if it helps to corroborate the woman's complaint.

Why would the D.A. be looking for a way out? This case is no different than any other sexual assault case. The man is accused of serious crimes. His status means nothing. He must go through the same procedures as everyone else accused of similar crimes.

If the complainant did not appear credible, they wouldn't have arrested this man. There is no reason the D.A. should immediately be looking for a way out.

I see that you two (?) are simply using this subject to push your own agenda.

It is simple to me: A man (who just happens to be an an IMF heavy) has been accused of a sexual assault in a hotel.

He should be answerable under the law to this accusation, the same as any other member of the community.

The rest of diversionary information you are posting here is irrelevant to this case.

I would think that was fairly obvious to just about everyone else.

That assertion might work on Sesame Street, but not here. You should call it a night Firefly.

And corporate money should not buy Supreme Courts either, but it does. We go to court with the system that we have, not the one we might wish we had.

I see that you are with Firefly in La La Land.

Nonsense

No one is in "la la land" but you two (?), attempting to turn something fairly straight forward to your own purposes .

Everyone should face the same court system for the same alleged offense.

Simple as that.

What an outrageous statement! Are you saying the word of a lowly hotel maid should never be believed when she accuses a prominant man of sexual assault?
Are working women, like hotel maids, never the victims of sexual assaults?

BillRM, people are presumed innocent before trial, but they are never found "innocent" after trial--they may be found legally not guilty, which is not the same as "innocent". O.J. was found not guilty--few thought he was "innocent".

Why is your concern so exclusively for Strauss-Kahn, with no apparent concern, at all, for a woman who may have been the victim of a physical and sexual assault commited by him?

I don't care what kind of big shot this man is, he is accused of harming someone--and his life is no more important than hers.

Reports have it that the maid is a black woman from Ghana....this will register with the people who know him, as they will know if this is likely to be someone whom he would go after. So far as I can find all of the women in his life have been white.

The hotel gives her faint praise, saying only that she has performed "satisfactory" in service to the hotel since she was hired three years ago.

WTF does who the alleged victim is, what "colour" she is, have to do with anything?

And what does her alleged work "performance" at the hotel have to do with it?

Honestly!

It is the proper application of the LAW that matters, nothing else.

because the allegation is that the Great Seducer can not control himself around women that he is attracted to. If a woman who is not his type claims that he came after her then she is almost certainly lying.

If she is a scammer looking for a payday she could do far worse the GSK. If she got hired last week then the odds go up that she was a plant. And so on.

A great deal of rather strange speculation going on here. All we really know from the concrete specifics so far reported are that he left his cell phone in his hotel room; was arrested on the aircraft, follwing the chambermaid's report of the assault; was subsequently charged with forcible rape or assault by the DA; and iscurrently being held for investigation.

Rumors are flying supposedly confirming his proclivities in this area and as well others denying any such thing - the inevitable stuff. Deliberate application of normal legal & investigative processes here are the best thing for all concerned, including Mr Levi Strauss if he is innocent. The likely nest step will be an habeus corpus motion from his attorneys, and the Police response regarding the ongoing investigation- whatever that might be.

I'm quite sure that the IMF, the European economy and France will all survive with or without Mr levi Strauss or any other single individual.

Those concerned about the supposedly different standards of Europeans in these matters should recall the charges of forcible rape made against former President Bill Clinton By a woman in Arkansas whose name I believe is Broadderick - she didn't report it to the police contemporaneously and had no corroberating evidence so no legal charges were filed. However, support for and opposition to Clinton in this matter came down essentially along political lines - just as it does in Italy with respect to Berlisconi.

The issue will be pursued by the police & the courts and I am confident justice will be done - however it ends.

For me the most interesting aspect of the matter is the likely effect on the forthcoming French Presidential elections. Levi Strauss is the leading candidate for the French opposition Socialist Party and his disappearance from the political scene - if that is the result - will have very interesting repercussions for their next election. President Sarkozy and Ms Le Pen will likely be delighted.

I agree. Not saying he's guilty, but if he is then apply the law.

Aghhhhh, hawkeye

I have not called him "the great seducer", or any such thing.

It is you who is making completely unsubstantiated allegations, like this:


What next?
She was wearing a low-cut dress, so "asked" to be assaulted?
Or she was actually a drug addict, who was looking for extra income to support her habit?


What is so objectionable to you about the law running its course?
It's that simple to me.
You appear to want to slander the alleged victim with little to base your claims on.

Exactly, roger.

You are right. Hawkeye and BillRM are pushing their usual agenda--which actually has very little to do with this case. They aren't considering this case with any objectivity at all.

A woman apparently gave police a credible account of a physical and sexual assault which led them to make an arrest. That the man involved was prominent makes for sensationalism, and widespread media coverage, but it does not change police procedures in NYC--putting the man in a lineup for identification, taking his mug shot, taking his fingerprints, collecting forensic evidence from under his fingernails, taking DNA samples, having him appear before a judge, setting bail, taking his passport to prevent his leaving the country, etc.--and nothing about those procedures is going to change because of this man's status. He really is just another person accused of crimes. Except this person will have a very expensive team of lawyers to argue his case for him. But the criminal justice system is not going to make allowances for him because of his status, and it would be outrageous if they did make such allowances.

Nor is there any reason to believe, based on what we do know, that his accuser is lying or falsifying her allegations against him.

Hawkeye and BillRM seem to believe that social status somehow makes one human life more important or more valuable than another. It's almost as if they are saying that, even if this man committed the crimes he is accused of, his life is more important than hers, so an exception should be made in his case. We shouldn't even wait for the criminal justice system to run it's course. She'll get over it, but the world needs him now, so just hurry this up and let him go.

I've found their thinking repugnant before, but I think they're hitting new lows.

I have faith in the justice system. This case will be fairly investigated, and Strauss-Kahn's prominence will not affect that. He will be treated like everyone else, by the police and D.A., just as he should be. And his accuser will hopefully be treated with the respect she deserves.

The law will run its course, regardless of who this man is.

I have very little faith in the "justice" system....

Why, specifically in a case such as this one?

Earlier on you argued for leniency based on the "good" this man had done in his IMF work.

I am arguing for fair & equal treatment under the law, regardless of a person's importance, their status, their sex, their "colour", their country of origin, or anything else.

A just result 12 hours from now would be for the judge to take is not guilty plea, make him promise to return for court dates, perhaps get a promise from the French to extradite him if need be, then give him his passport and send him on his way.

I dont expect that to happen.

He will with-in hours resign from the IMF, and in 6 months or year we will see if the DA can put together a case.

You think they would accept my promise to return? Or yours?

I think the allegation in this case is that this man showed no self control period--it had nothing to do with "attraction" to the woman. According to her account, he walked out of a bathroom naked, he saw her, and immediately ran for her and grabbed her. Apparently there was no interchange between these two prior to his advances on her--she thought the suite was unoccupied when she entered to clean it, and she did not see him until he came out of the bathroom. What we do not know is whether he knew the time when the maids usually entered to clean, and was perhaps waiting for her--or any other maid who might have entered--so he could carry out an assault. If an assault did occur, it might have been planned on his part.

These two people were strangers to each other. When strangers commit sexual assaults they aren't always fussy about having "a type". Being sexually attacked by a stranger in a hotel suite isn't all that different from being sexually attacked by a stranger on the street.

Calling someone "the great seducer" refers to his womanizing. That's quite different than someone who commits criminal sexual assaults. And more than one woman has accused Strauss-Kahn of committing criminal sexual assaults. This is just the first time he's been arrested for it. We may be hearing a lot more sexual assault stories about him in coming days.

We won't know whether he is guilty of the charges in this case until all the evidence emerges and the criminal case runs its course. But there is absolutely no reason right now to assume his accuser his lying. We just have to wait and see how this plays out.