“Le Grand Séducteur”–IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn–Takes The Perp Walk for Sexually Assaulting a Hotel Maid, An African Immigrant Woman

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Oh, hell no. When I heard about it, I knew that it wasn’t a set-up, although this story definitely raises the fortunes of that toad President Nicolas “finding his dick in Tripoli” Sarkozy of France. The excesses of this particular prominent and powerful man had gotten out of hand before, and it was only a matter of time that he would transgress again. And he did to his grief big time, just like any other serial sexual addict and predator. If the story is true, and it looks increasingly like it is, Dominique Strauss-Kahn faces up to 25 years in the slammer for rape, imprisonment and other sex charges.

This morning, after Strauss-Kahn, 62, spent the night in a bare East Harlem jail cell (in the custody of the same Special Victims Unit that a spinoff of Law and Order is based on), a French woman, Tristane Banon, added to the mix, saying that she had been sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn several years ago, but refused to pursue it, knowing how high up the food chain he was, and fearing ostracism or worse if she charged him.

In France on Monday, a lawyer for a woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by Strauss-Kahn nine years ago said she now wants to file a legal complaint against the IMF head.

Lawyer David Koubbi told RTL radio Monday that his client, Tristane Banon, did not file suit earlier due to pressure over the alleged 2002 assault. He said she was dissuaded by her own mother, a regional Socialist official. (My italics.)

Koubbi told RTL he is likely to file suit for Banon now because “she knows she’ll be heard and she knows she’ll be taken seriously.”

Oh, yeah.  I’m sure that’s not all.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had already censured Strauss-Kahn for his sexual shenanigans with a female underling at Davos. This guy was being touted as being the Socialists’ answer to Sarkozy for next year’s elections. (Lord, is that all whom they could find?) Don’t think that some other women, prominent or prole, aren’t going to say a few more syllables about their unwanted and uninvited encounters with the erstwhile head of the IMF. This isn’t a high dive, this is a mortal plunge, not just for him, but for a host of his connections.

I feel for his wife, his third consort, (and her second) and his family and friends. They are reeling. But my sympathy only goes so far in this case. They are reeling not just from the crime itself, but their own connection to the perpetrator. They knew who and what he was and what he was capable of. I mean, really. Everybody knew. This is not something that people can titter about behind their hands, and give tacit, backhanded approval of his exploits, and wish they could do the same things themselves. Wife Anne Sinclair duped herself; the recent censure should have warned her, as well as all the other stories–past and present–about his reputation as le grand séducteur. But some women are starstruck with men with power until they wake up with a quickness that they are going straight to hell in a handbasket and won’t be able to hold their heads up in public. Or they make deals with the devil anyway in order to climb socially or politically, with a real payoff in the future.  Either way, the law of averages eventually catches up with them. That’s exactly what is going to happen with Sinclair. She backed him up before, but this time? From Reuters:

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s wife Anne Sinclair said on Sunday she had no doubt he would be proved innocent of sexual assault charges made against him in New York following an alleged incident involving a hotel maid.

“I do not believe for a single second the accusations levelled against my husband,” Sinclair said in a statement.

“I do not doubt his innocence will be established. I appeal for restraint and decency,” she said.

Umph.

Naturally, there are many among the French who view all this as a conspiracy and a set-up. At least, right now, but I think the evidence is going to be overwhelming. Unfortunately, Strauss-Kahn himself, some three weeks ago, suggested just such a scenario for his downfall in a French magazine. Unfortunately, you have to have a subscription to this magazine to read the whole article, plus Google’s translation assist.

In an interview with Liberation, a French publication, on April 28, he said he foresaw 3 main challenges ahead for him (the implied thing being, if he ran for President of France).

“The money, women and my Jewishness.”

He said the challenges were “in that order,” but he spoke about the big one first: Women.

“Yes, I love women … so what? […] For years we talk about giant pictures of orgies,” he told Liberation. “But I’ve never seen anything out … Let show them!”

Then he said he could see himself being set up because of his affinity for women. According to Liberation:

DSK then talks about ending up in a men’s room with Sarkozy, during an international summit, and asks him to stop the dirty tricks about his private life.

Wanting to pose as a victim, DSK starts imagining “a woman (he might have) raped in a parking lot and to whom half a million or a million euros would be promised to make up such a story…”

(Another translation of the paragraph says, “He said he could see himself becoming the victim of a honey trap.”)

Sounds a bit like Princess Diana when she wrote years before that she was going to be providentially killed in a car crash at the behest of her former husband the Prince of Wales.  She had it all right, except for the part where she claimed Charles was going to marry Alexandra “Tiggy” Legge-Bourke.

The money, oh well.  He gets half a million a year in salary, and he has money beyond that.  So?  I don’t give a damn about his Jewishness.  But if he is a racist and a serial predator of women and girls, he’s a waste of breath.

The perp walks–indelible images splashed on all French media–have shocked and startled the populace. In France, public figures accused of crimes are shielded from shame and disgrace because they are innocent until proven guilty. Lesser mortals, however, may be another story entirely. Thus, such images and video footage–perp walks, arrest photos, mug shots–are not shown in French newspapers, magazines or electronic media. To see Strauss-Kahn brought so low, in handcuffs, accused of sex crimes and giving a baleful miles ahead stare to the American media, may be a defining moment not only in French politics, but French sexual politics and culture as well.

And the rape survivor? This is the story as it sits now:

The 32-year-old maid told authorities that when she entered Strauss-Kahn’s spacious, $3,000-a-night suite early Saturday afternoon, she thought it was unoccupied. Instead, Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where he sexually assaulted her, New York Police Department spokesman Paul J. Browne said.

The woman told police she fought him off, but then he dragged her into the bathroom, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear. The woman was able to break free again, escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, authorities said.

Strauss-Kahn was gone by the time detectives arrived moments later. He left his cellphone behind. “It looked like he got out of there in a hurry,” Browne said.

That’s not all he left. He left DNA–sperm, blood, skin–all over the room, on the bed clothes and towels, and in the bathroom. Let me tell you something: an innocent guy wouldn’t have left so quickly and run for JFK Airport just within the amount of time needed to get through the lines, check-in, and everything else. An innocent guy with nothing to lose would have stuck around for the cops coming over there strong. The maid has been identified at this writing as an African immigrant woman. Another source from Nigeria claims that she is from Guinea, a former French colony, which really sounds like some karma. The notorious Daily Mail is claiming that she is from Ghana. My sister did right to run straight to her supervisors and co-workers, possibly half-naked with her wounds and torn and rumpled clothing when she got away from him, despite how she must have appeared. If she had cowered in shame, tried to clean things and herself up after the rape, the NYPD would not be standing on such firm ground right now, despite Strauss-Kahn’s mouthpiece–who had earlier defended Sean “P. Diddy” Combs on gun charges–claiming that Strauss-Kahn had an alibi.

Strauss-Kahn has told investigators that he was with his daughter in a restaurant in New York at the time the attack reportedly took place, sources told RTL radio on Monday.

His defense is preparing to provide evidence and testimony about the lunch.

Under the scenario, Strauss-Kahn would have left the hotel room ahead of the time he was said to have conducted the assault.

Weak.

So someone else of Strauss-Kahn’s appearance, height and build snuck into the hotel room?  Especially since it was locked against anyone who didn’t have a passkey, unlike a maid? That doesn’t make sense.

He left the hotel around midday to lunch with his daughter? You know, if I were visiting my Columbia graduate student daughter after not seeing her for several months, I would have spent more than an hour with her, especially depending on the service at the restaurant. I remember spending a couple of hours with my dad at a restaurant, and it was like time stood still and we didn’t know what time it was when we said our goodbyes.

The assault occurred around 1 p.m. Saturday.

The woman identified Strauss-Kahn in a police line-up later that afternoon. When she was brought to Roosevelt Hospital for treatment for what are called minor injuries, she submitted to a “full sexual assault” examination.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, as he appeared for his court arraignment; not a picture of confidence or sartorial splendor (Courtesy: Daily Mail)

His excuses may not explain how the room and bathroom looked, which would confirm the violence of the attack. It also does not explain why Strauss-Kahn would take off without his cell phone and perhaps other items, proof to the NYPD that he left in a big hurry. Strauss-Kahn has been in the same clothes in which he tried to leave New York and since his capture. During the perp walk, he certainly did not look the usual epitome of sartorial splendor. I doubt whether the cops roughed him up that hard. However, AP photos like this one show him shrunk and sorry.

Furthermore, a guy with that kind of information on his cell phone–and I am sure that it is one of those high class business Smartphones or Androids, and he can afford it–wouldn’t leave something like that lying around casually. A man like Strauss-Kahn would have phone numbers, passwords and even notes regarding powerful people–no matter if they were in French–on this cell phone. It would be too hot and too dangerous for anyone to fence or to access. It would be the equivalent of a security breach. That’s one of the reasons why the Secret Service forbade President Obama the use of his Blackberry.

So what did the Sofitel management and staff do, especially when Strauss-Kahn called the hotel for the cell phone?

The law enforcement official said that the police were called to the hotel about 1:30 on Saturday, but that when they arrived, Mr. Strauss-Kahn had already checked out. At some point, Mr. Strauss-Kahn called the hotel and said that his cellphone was missing. Detectives then coached hotel employees to tell him, falsely, that they had the telephone. According to the law enforcement official, Mr. Strauss-Kahn told them he was at Kennedy Airport about to get on a plane.

Talk about customer service. This hotel chain definitely is worth $3000 a night. They take care of their employees as well as their patrons. They brought the phone alright.  They sent the cops, too. The cops radioed the plane, and collared him off to the slam.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been denied bail. He has already shown that he is a flight risk. Plus, France has no extradition treaty with the U.S. For example, Roman Polanski has had a place to hide out for decades. Strauss-Kahn has also submitted to a thorough forensics examination.

The IMF–and its questionable policies towards undeveloped or cash poor nations–will go on without this guy. So will France and the Socialists. For the rape survivor, going on slowly but surely started after the rape and must go on without her being revictimized once more.

~ by blksista on May 16, 2011.