NEW YORK PROSECUTORS are reportedly on the verge of dropping their charges against former IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn – saying the credibility of his alleged victim has been too undermined to successfully bring a case.
The New York Post reports that charges will be dropped in the coming fortnight, if not sooner, after background investigations into the hotel maid behind the allegations would regularly offer sexual favours to her hotel’s high-wealth clients.
“We all know this case is not sustainable,” a prosecution source told the paper yesterday. “Her credibility is so bad now, we know we cannot sustain a case with her.”
Previous reports from the newspaper have claimed that the 32-year-old chambermaid, originally from Guinea, regularly picked up “extraordinary tips” from the Sofitel Hotel’s residents in exchange for performing sexual acts.
She is alleged to have lied in her application for asylum in the US and about her number of children, in attempts to secure residency and tax benefits, the paper had claimed.
The paper cited defence sources who now believe the maid had engaged in a consentual sex-for-money exchange and had only reported the incident after Strauss-Kahn then declined to pay.
“In the past, guests have left stuff [tips] for her,” one source said. “She goes back to look for the money.”
The New York Times has reported on the inconsistencies between the maid’s statement to police and her reports to staff at a hospital where she was treated in the aftermath of the incident on May 14.
In her testimony to a grand jury investigating Strauss-Kahn’s alleged assault, the maid claimed she had waited in the hallway of the hotel while Strauss-Kahn dressed and left the room.
But she told investigators she fled the room immediately and cleaned another room, before returning to clean Strauss-Kahn’s suite 2806 and then reporting the incident to her supervisor.
Strauss-Kahn’s own lawyers have separately threatened to sue for slander if a French novelist files criminal charges claiming he assaulted her nine years ago.
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