IMF chief jailed on Rikers Island, charged with attempted rape
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Date: 5/17/2011 7:54:34 AM
Sender: CNN
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IMF chief jailed on Rikers Island, charged with attempted rape
New York (CNN) -- The head of the powerful International Monetary Fund will spend the next few days in an 11-by-13-foot cell at New York＇s Rikers Island jail complex, a far cry from the $3,000-a-night luxury suite where he allegedly chased a housekeeping employee naked down a hallway and sexually assaulted her.
A haggard-looking Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a man who has helped bail out desperate countries in need of cash, was himself denied bail Monday by a Manhattan Criminal Court judge.
By the end of the day, the 62-year-old -- who had been a presumptive front-runner for the presidency of France -- was "settled" in at the East River compound, said a New York Department of Corrections spokesman who declined to be named.
Strauss-Kahn＇s next court appearance is scheduled for Friday. Until then, he will have no contact with other inmates because he is considered a high-profile detainee, the spokesman said.
His new neighbors include 14,000 men and women who have been accused or convicted of a host of crimes committed in New York City.
Just a few days earlier, Strauss-Kahn was staying in a posh suite at the Sofitel hotel replete with its own foyer, conference room, hallway and living room. Police said the IMF chief was naked when he allegedly tried to lock the 32-year-old hotel employee in the suite and force himself on her Saturday.
The next day, Strauss-Kahn was supposed to be in Europe talking with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and preparing to be a leading figure in sessions addressing economic crises in Greece, Portugal, Ireland and beyond. Instead, he found himself in "The Tombs," a Lower Manhattan jail that proved to be a way station before his departure to Rikers Island.
New York (CNN) -- The head of the powerful International Monetary Fund will spend the next few days in an 11-by-13-foot cell at New York＇s Rikers Island jail complex, a far cry from the $3,000-a-night luxury suite where he allegedly chased a housekeeping employee naked down a hallway and sexually assaulted her.
A haggard-looking Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a man who has helped bail out desperate countries in need of cash, was himself denied bail Monday by a Manhattan Criminal Court judge.
By the end of the day, the 62-year-old -- who had been a presumptive front-runner for the presidency of France -- was "settled" in at the East River compound, said a New York Department of Corrections spokesman who declined to be named.
Strauss-Kahn＇s next court appearance is scheduled for Friday. Until then, he will have no contact with other inmates because he is considered a high-profile detainee, the spokesman said.
His new neighbors include 14,000 men and women who have been accused or convicted of a host of crimes committed in New York City.
Just a few days earlier, Strauss-Kahn was staying in a posh suite at the Sofitel hotel replete with its own foyer, conference room, hallway and living room. Police said the IMF chief was naked when he allegedly tried to lock the 32-year-old hotel employee in the suite and force himself on her Saturday.
The next day, Strauss-Kahn was supposed to be in Europe talking with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and preparing to be a leading figure in sessions addressing economic crises in Greece, Portugal, Ireland and beyond. Instead, he found himself in "The Tombs," a Lower Manhattan jail that proved to be a way station before his departure to Rikers Island.
Strauss-Kahn＇s accuser picked the IMF chief out of a lineup Sunday at a New York police station, saying he was the man who had sexually assaulted her, according to a law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the investigation.
The case also rattled the IMF, which assists countries suffering economic difficulties by providing loans. Founded after World War II, the IMF is composed of 187 countries.
The organization＇s executive board met "in an informal session to receive a verbal report from senior fund officials," IMF spokeswoman Caroline Atkinson said in a news release. Having been briefed on developments regarding Strauss-Kahn, she added, "The IMF and its executive board will continue to monitor developments."
About midday Saturday, Strauss-Kahn was in his 28th-floor suite when the housekeeping employee came in to clean it, according to New York Police Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne. He shut the door, preventing the woman from leaving, according to a criminal complaint released by prosecutors.
Strauss-Kahn emerged from a room naked, according to Browne, and ran after the woman down the hallway of the suite.
"He grabbed the victim＇s chest without consent, attempted to remove her pantyhose" and forcibly grabbed her between her legs, the complaint said. He also forced her to perform oral sex on him, Assistant District Attorney John McConnell said at Monday＇s arraignment.
The hotel employee said Strauss-Kahn pulled her into a bedroom and started attacking her, police said. She fought him off, she told investigators, but he then dragged her into the bathroom and forced himself on her.
Afterward, the employee ran to the front desk, Browne said. Hotel staff alerted New York police.
By the time officers arrived, Strauss-Kahn had left in the hotel limousine, according to the law enforcement source. He called the hotel around the same time police got to the Sofitel to say he had left his phone behind and asked if it could be brought to him.
Investigators told the hotel staff to advise him the phone would be taken to him and police went to the airport.
Two plainclothes Port Authority police detectives led him off the plane, the source said.
Defense attorneys on Monday disputed authorities＇ allegations that Strauss-Kahn left quickly after the alleged attack, saying he had a lunch appointment and that his flight to Paris had been booked far in advance.
"It is simply inaccurate, and again it comes from inaccuracies because their rush to do the investigation," Brafman said.
Strauss-Kahn＇s lawyers have declined to identify or characterize the relationship of the person they say was having lunch with their client at the time of the alleged sexual assault. This person, the attorneys say, is willing to testify.
A law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the investigation said Strauss-Kahn was examined for scratches and DNA samples were taken. Strauss-Kahn consented to the testing -- the reason his arraignment was pushed to Monday, said another of his lawyers, William Taylor -- after investigators were prepared to execute a search warrant, the source said.
A former French finance minister, national legislator and economics professor in Paris, Strauss-Kahn became the IMF＇s 10th managing director in November 2007. He is also chairman of the IMF executive board.
Deputy head John Lipsky serves as acting managing director while Strauss-Kahn is not in Washington, the IMF said, making him the agency＇s de facto leader at least as long as Strauss-Kahn is detained in New York.
There remains the question of immunity, and whether it applies to Strauss-Kahn or to documents and items that he had when he was taken into custody or that he left behind at the hotel. IMF bylaws say its officials are "immune from (the) legal process" for anything to do their day-to-day jobs, immigration matters, taxation or other such issues.
But the IMF said Monday that Strauss-Kahn was traveling on private business while in New York, having paid for his Sofitel suite out of his own pocket.
Browne said Strauss-Kahn does not have diplomatic immunity in this case nor, to the commissioner＇s knowledge, has he claimed it.
CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said immunity is unlikely to apply to Strauss-Kahn regardless, because violent crimes like the one alleged here aren＇t covered.
Police have seized Strauss-Kahn＇s cell phone. A source with direct knowledge of the issue, who requested anonymity, said that any IMF-issued electronic devices, including official phones, are also covered by immunity. It is not clear whether the phone seized by police in Strauss-Kahn＇s hotel suite was issued by the IMF.
Strauss-Kahn was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the Brussels Economic Forum in Belgium on Wednesday. Organizers said Sunday his appearance had not been canceled officially, but they were no longer expecting him to attend. |
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