Hotel maid jeopardizes Strauss-Kahn rape case
Source: Agencies |
July 3, 2011, Sunday
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THE hotel maid who accused former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault may have inflicted fatal damage on her own case by lying to prosecutors about her life story and what she did in the moments after the suspected attack, legal experts said.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office revealed Friday that the 32-year-old woman had committed a host of minor frauds to better her life in the United States since arriving in the country seven years ago, including lying on immigration paperwork, cheating on her taxes, and misstating her income so she could live in an apartment reserved for the poor.
In a letter to Strauss-Kahn's lawyers, prosecutors also said she had misrepresented what she did immediately after the alleged attack by Strauss-Kahn - instead of fleeing his luxury suite to a hallway and waiting for a supervisor, she went to clean another room and then returned to clean Strauss-Kahn's suite before reporting the encounter.
That change in her story, and the revelations about her past, wasn't enough to kill the case entirely, but prosecutors acknowledged their position had been shaken, and agreed to a defense request that Strauss-Kahn be freed immediately from house arrest.
The revelations in a case once considered iron-clad came as a shock; prosecutors and police had said repeatedly that the hotel maid was found to be a credible witness.
"Rape cases are especially difficult to try," said Linda Fairstein, who oversaw the sex crimes prosecution unit in the district attorney's office for 25 years. "But they are nearly impossible to try when you find out the witness has already lied to you. The prosecutors and police, they took her word over the word of one of the most powerful men in the financial world."
At a minimum, questions about the woman's credibility could leave a jury doubtful that she was telling the truth about what happened. They also raise the possibility that the woman herself could be in legal trouble, if the government decides to seek punishment for her past fibs and fabrications.
District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance said the charges, which include attempted rape, will stand for now. But prosecutors had a legal duty to turn over the uncovered information to the defense, and they were continuing their investigation.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office revealed Friday that the 32-year-old woman had committed a host of minor frauds to better her life in the United States since arriving in the country seven years ago, including lying on immigration paperwork, cheating on her taxes, and misstating her income so she could live in an apartment reserved for the poor.
In a letter to Strauss-Kahn's lawyers, prosecutors also said she had misrepresented what she did immediately after the alleged attack by Strauss-Kahn - instead of fleeing his luxury suite to a hallway and waiting for a supervisor, she went to clean another room and then returned to clean Strauss-Kahn's suite before reporting the encounter.
That change in her story, and the revelations about her past, wasn't enough to kill the case entirely, but prosecutors acknowledged their position had been shaken, and agreed to a defense request that Strauss-Kahn be freed immediately from house arrest.
The revelations in a case once considered iron-clad came as a shock; prosecutors and police had said repeatedly that the hotel maid was found to be a credible witness.
"Rape cases are especially difficult to try," said Linda Fairstein, who oversaw the sex crimes prosecution unit in the district attorney's office for 25 years. "But they are nearly impossible to try when you find out the witness has already lied to you. The prosecutors and police, they took her word over the word of one of the most powerful men in the financial world."
At a minimum, questions about the woman's credibility could leave a jury doubtful that she was telling the truth about what happened. They also raise the possibility that the woman herself could be in legal trouble, if the government decides to seek punishment for her past fibs and fabrications.
District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance said the charges, which include attempted rape, will stand for now. But prosecutors had a legal duty to turn over the uncovered information to the defense, and they were continuing their investigation.
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