Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Strauss-Kahn Cleared

Why is it that the state acts as a defense team when it comes to some?

"DA wants all charges against Strauss-Kahn dropped; Says accuser lied repeatedly to investigators" August 23, 2011|By Jennifer Peltz and Tom Hays, Associated Press

NEW YORK - New York prosecutors asked a judge yesterday to dismiss all criminal charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn because the hotel maid who created a cross-continental sensation by accusing him of sexual assault repeatedly lied to them.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office said in court papers that the accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, repeatedly gave false information to investigators and grand jurors about her life, her past, and her actions after her encounter with the French diplomat.  

What happens when you start wars off such?

“In virtually every substantive interview with prosecutors, despite entreaties to simply be truthful, she has not been truthful on matters great and small,’’ the lawyers wrote. 

She acted just like government and their media mouthpiece here.

Diallo and her attorney, Kenneth Thompson, met briefly with representatives of the Manhattan district attorney’s office to discuss the decision not to proceed with the prosecution. Thompson didn’t say what had happened inside or reveal what his client was told, but he recited a short statement condemning prosecutors for their handling of the case.

“Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has denied the right of a woman to get justice in a rape case,’’ he said. “He has not only turned his back on this innocent victim. But he has also turned his back on the forensic, medical, and other physical evidence in this case.’’

Thompson is asking a judge for an order disqualifying the prosecutor’s office from handling the case. Diallo is also suing Strauss-Kahn, seeking to make him pay financially if not with his freedom, a move that the diplomat’s lawyers said helped erode her credibility....  

She smelled money?

Related: New Suit For Strauss-Kahn

And not an orange jumpsuit.

The case captured international attention as a seeming cauldron of sex, violence, power, and politics: a French presidential prospect, known in his homeland as “the Great Seducer,’’ accused of a contemptuous attack on an African immigrant who had come to clean his plush suite at the Sofitel hotel.

The stakes were high for Strauss-Kahn - who resigned his IMF post, spent nearly a week behind bars, and then spent possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for house arrest - as well as for Vance, who was handling the biggest case he has had during his 18 months in office.... 

Like many sexual assault cases, in which the accused and accuser are often the only eyewitnesses, the Strauss-Kahn case has hinged heavily on the woman’s believability.

Early on, prosecutors stressed that Diallo had provided “a compelling and unwavering story’’ replete with “very powerful details’’ and buttressed by forensic evidence; his semen was found on her uniform.  

So if you are a member of the international banking cartel your case is dismissed, but if you are a president you get impeached.

The police commissioner said seasoned detectives had found her credible.  

But as the case made its way up...

But on July 1, prosecutors said they had found the maid had told them a series of falsehoods, including a persuasive but phony account of having been gang-raped in her native Guinea.  

Isn't it amazing how sometimes immigrant lies are so heroic in the service of going to school or getting here to put food on the table for family, blah, blah, blah, but in other cases.... ?

And what exactly does THAT have to do with THIS, huh?

She said she was echoing a story she’d told to enhance her 2003 application for political asylum. She told interviewers she was raped in her homeland under other circumstances and embellished it to get herself and her 15-year-old daughter a chance at a better life in the United States.

Diallo also was not consistent about what she did after her encounter with Strauss-Kahn, telling a grand jury she had hovered in a hallway, when she actually returned to his and another room before consulting her boss, prosecutors said. She said the discrepancy was a misunderstanding.

She also alluded to Strauss-Kahn’s wealth in a recorded phone conversation with a jailed friend, and her bank account had been a repository for tens of thousands of dollars she couldn’t explain, a law enforcement official has said.  

Oh, so SHE HAS BEEN PAID OFF!!!

She said a jailed man had used the bank account without telling her. As for the phone call, Thompson said, she mentioned Strauss-Kahn’s money only to say that her alleged attacker was influential.

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 Also see  

Kahn Case Collapses

Maid to Order Dismissal For Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Coco Chanel Was a Stinking Nazi 

Take a deep sniff, readers. 

And what a morning it has been at the Globe website with all the flip-flops and censorship (see next day updates).

Judge drops Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case (By John Eligon, New York Times)  

Interesting. My printed paper carries an AP story.

"NY court dismisses sex case; Strauss-Kahn free" by Jennifer Peltz and Tom Hays Associated Press / August 23, 2011

NEW YORK—Dominique Strauss-Kahn became a free man Tuesday when a judge ended the sexual assault case against him at the request of prosecutors, who said the hotel maid who accused the former International Monetary Fund chief couldn't be trusted.

Though evidence showed Strauss-Kahn had a sexual encounter with Nafissatou Diallo in his hotel suite more than three months ago, prosecutors said the accuser was not credible because of lies she has told, including an earlier false rape claim....  

But that NEVER SEEMS TO STOP THEM when they put some DRUG-DEALING or TERROR CASE on TRIAL while using CRIMINAL INFORMANTS who agreed to become instigators, 'er, informants and thus had their criminal cases dropped by the government. 

The case drew global attention and left both the accuser and the accused -- a one-time contender for the French presidency -- with tattered reputations.  

Being a banker and politician it wasn't that high to begin with.

Strauss-Kahn arrived at court in a six-car motorcade and was greeted by protesters wielding signs carrying such messages as "DSK treats women like property" and "Put the rapist on trial -- not the victim." The shouting could be heard inside the courtroom.

He appeared resolute inside. He smiled and shook hands with his biographer as his wife, journalist Anne Sinclair, sat nearby.

The couple left court without speaking to reporters, but Strauss-Kahn later issued a statement describing the case as "a nightmare for me and my family."

"I want to thank all the friends in France and in the United States who have believed in my innocence, and to the thousands of people who sent us their support personally and in writing. I am most deeply grateful to my wife and family who have gone through this ordeal with me," he said.

"We will have nothing further to say about this matter and we look forward to returning to our home and resuming something of a more normal life."

Later, Strauss-Kahn appeared outside the posh Tribeca town house where he was held under house arrest until July -- when prosecutors first publicly admitted they had doubts about the maid's credibility. He summed up the statement in French and was mobbed by reporters.

Diallo, from the West African nation of Guinea, claimed that the 62-year-old diplomat chased her down, grabbed her crotch and forced her to perform oral sex when she arrived to clean his luxury suite May 14.

He was charged with a criminal sex act, attempted rape and sexual abuse, and was jailed for nearly a week before being released on $1 million bail under pricey house arrest.

DNA evidence showed Strauss-Kahn's semen on Diallo's work clothes, and prosecutors on Monday revealed additional details that led them to believe a sexual encounter occurred. But Strauss-Kahn's attorneys contended it wasn't forced.

"At the very first appearance ... I said in open court that this was not a forcible encounter," Strauss-Kahn's attorney Benjamin Brafman said outside court. "You can engage in inappropriate behavior, perhaps, but that is much different than a crime. And this case was treated as a crime -- when it was not."

When prosecutors brought charges, they said their evidence was strong and Diallo was credible.  

They always seem to say that.

But in July they said she had told them a series of troubling falsehoods, including a phony account of having been gang-raped in her native Guinea. She told interviewers she was raped in her homeland under other circumstances and embellished the account to enhance her 2003 application for political asylum.  

Reads like the AmeriKan media run-up to the Iraq invasion.

Prosecutors continued investigating and said Monday they uncovered further information that led them to believe they couldn't ask a jury to believe her story.

Why don't you LET A JURY DECIDE THAT for THEMSELVES, huh? 

Like many sexual assault cases, in which the accused and the accuser are often the only eyewitnesses, the Strauss-Kahn case hinged heavily on the maid's believability.

"Our inability to believe the complainant beyond a reasonable doubt means, in good faith, that we could not ask a jury to do that," assistant district attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said in formally recommending the case be dismissed.

She added that prosecutors' decision to drop the case "does not mean that we, in any way, condone the defendant's behavior."

The case was the biggest for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance in his 18 months in office.

"We should not blindly advocate for one side, or be afraid to assess honestly whether we can meet our burden of proof. Because when prosecutors fail to follow the facts where they lead, justice becomes secondary to victory," he said....    

When I read that statement my first thought was the 9/11 cover-up.

That's all I got from my printed pos. 

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