The People of the State of New York v. Strauss-Kahn was a criminal case relating to allegations of sexual assault and attempted rape made by a hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo, against Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the Sofitel New York Hotel on May 14, 2011. On May 19, 2011, Strauss-Kahn was indicted by a grand jury; after posting $1 million bail and pleading not guilty, he was placed under house arrest.
On July 1, 2011, prosecutors told the judge that they had reassessed the strength of their case in the light of the housekeeper's diminished credibility. On August 23, 2011, the judge formally dismissed all charges following a recommendation for dismissal filed by the District Attorney's office, which asserted that the complainant's untruthfulness made it impossible to credit her. At the time of the alleged attack, Strauss-Kahn was the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a leading candidate in the 2012 French presidential election. Four days after his arrest, he voluntarily resigned his post at the IMF.
Chronology
Arrest and indictment
On May 14, 2011, Strauss-Kahn was arrested and charged with the sexual assault and attempted rape of 32-year-old Nafissatou Diallo, a housekeeper at the Sofitel New York Hotel in the Manhattan borough earlier that day. After calling the hotel and asking them to bring his missing cell phone to the airport, he was met by police and taken from his Paris-bound flight at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport minutes before takeoff. He was later charged on several counts of sexual assault plus unlawful imprisonment. Strauss-Kahn was accused of four felony charges—two of criminal sexual acts (forcing the housekeeper to perform oral sex on him), one of attempted rape and one of sexual abuse—plus three misdemeanor offences, including unlawful imprisonment.
The U.S. State Department determined that Strauss Kahn's diplomatic immunity did not apply to the case.
Strauss-Kahn hired New York lawyer Benjamin Brafman to represent him. He was reported as having sought public relations advice from a Washington-based consulting firm. His defense team hired a private detective agency to investigate the housekeeper's past.
Nafissatou Diallo was represented by Kenneth Thompson and Douglas Wigdor of Thompson Wigdor LLP, a two-partner law firm whose areas of expertise include employment law and civil rights cases. Thompson hired a Paris lawyer to look for women in France who may have been victimized by Strauss-Kahn.
Strauss-Kahn appeared in court on May 16, 2011, before New York City Criminal Court judge Melissa Jackson. During the proceedings the prosecution stated that the housekeeper, Diallo, an immigrant asylee from the West African state of Guinea, had provided a detailed account of the alleged assault, had picked Strauss-Kahn out of a lineup, and that DNA evidence recovered at the site was being tested. Strauss-Kahn, who had earlier agreed to a forensic examination, pleaded not guilty. Judge Jackson denied his bail request stating that the fact that Strauss-Kahn was apprehended on a departing airplane "rais[ed] some concerns".
On May 19, 2011, Strauss-Kahn was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on seven criminal counts, two of which were first-degree criminal sexual acts, each punishable by a sentence of up to 25 years in prison. On that date New York Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Obus granted Strauss-Kahn's bail request, which was set at $1 million with the additional restrictions of 24-hour home detention and an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet.
After Strauss-Kahn turned over his passport and posted an additional $5 million bail bond, he was placed under house arrest in a residence in Lower Manhattan.
On May 24, 2011, it was reported that DNA tests of the semen found on Diallo's shirt had shown a match with the DNA sample from Strauss-Kahn.
He was arraigned on June 6, 2011, and pleaded not guilty. Outside the court, lawyers for the parties made statements. Benjamin Brafman, for Strauss-Kahn, said: "In our judgment, once the evidence has been reviewed, it will be clear that there was no element of forcible compulsion in this case whatsoever. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply not credible." Kenneth Thompson, Diallo's lawyer, said all of Strauss-Kahn's power, money and influence would not stop the truth from coming out.
Prosecution disclosures
On June 30, 2011, the district attorney sent a letter to Strauss-Kahn's defense team disclosing information about the housekeeper.
Prosecutors met with Strauss-Kahn's defense team the same day. That evening The New York Times reported the case as being on the verge of collapse and quoted law-enforcement officials as saying investigators had uncovered major holes in the housekeeper's credibility. Following Strauss-Kahn's release on bail the following day, the same paper reported that Diallo had admitted she lied about the events immediately following her encounter with Strauss-Kahn. She had initially said that after the alleged assault she waited in a hallway until Strauss-Kahn had left. She later said she cleaned an adjacent room, and then returned to Strauss-Kahn's room to clean there before reporting to her supervisor that she had been attacked. Among the discoveries were statements by Diallo to investigators differing from what she had put in her asylum application, her claiming to have only one phone while paying hundreds of dollars a month to five phone companies, and individuals, including known felons, depositing almost $100,000 into her bank account over the previous two years.
Also, Diallo told a compelling and detailed story of being gang raped by soldiers in Guinea, which was completely fabricated. Over a two-week period she told the story to prosecutors twice, both times with great emotion, precision, and conviction, including, tears, halting speech, the number and nature of her attackers, pointing out scars that were supposedly from the attack, and how her 2-year old daughter was present. When she finally admitted that the story was fabricated, she at first said that she made up the attack to be consistent with her asylum application. But that too turned out to be untrue—as her asylum application makes no mention of any gang rape.
In addition, the prosecution learned that, the day following the alleged assault, the housekeeper had made a phone call in her native Fula language to her boyfriend in an immigration detention center. The New York Times quoted a law enforcement official as saying that a translation of the call revealed she had used words to the effect of "Don't worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I'm doing." Prosecutors said that the conversation, one of at least three they recorded, raised "very troubling" questions about the credibility of the accuser "because she discussed the possible benefits of pursuing charges against a wealthy man." According to The New York Times, the translation of the call "alarmed prosecutors" as being another in a "series of troubling statements." After obtaining the recorded audio from the call, the accuser's attorney countered that it was the inmate who expressed fear about the financial power of DSK and Nafissatou merely dismissed his fears by saying that her lawyer knew what he was doing.
Thompson, the accuser's attorney, challenged the prosecutors' handling and interpretation of the phone call and asked them to withdraw and appoint a special prosecutor. The prosecutors declined to recuse their office, saying Thompson's request was without merit.
Subsequent events
The morning after the prosecution's disclosures, in a brief court hearing in which prosecutors said they had reassessed the strength of their case, Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest on his own recognizance without bail. His passport remained surrendered although he was free to travel within the US. After the hearing, Kenneth Thompson, the housekeeper's attorney, defended his client: "It's a fact that the victim here has made some mistakes, but that doesn't mean she's not a rape victim."
The next scheduled hearing was postponed twice, from July 18 to August 1, 2011, and then again to August 23, with prosecutors saying that they needed more time for further investigation and defense saying they hoped it would lead to a dismissal of charges.
Civil lawsuits
On August 8, 2011, Diallo filed a civil action against Strauss-Kahn in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Bronx. On May 15, 2012, a few days after the French election for president, Strauss-Kahn filed a countersuit against Diallo for making "baseless accusations that had cost him his job as managing director of the International Monetary Fund and 'other professional opportunities'." Until his arrest, Strauss-Kahn was considered to be a likely candidate to run against the incumbent president, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Diallo's lawsuit was settled, together with Strauss-Kahn's countersuit, for an undisclosed amount on December 10, 2012. A separate suit against the New York Post, who had reported she was a prostitute, was settled at the same time. Diallo's attorney, Kenneth Thompson, described Diallo as a strong and courageous woman who had never lost faith in the American system of justice. Previous news reports emanating from Le Monde that Strauss-Kahn was settling for $6 million were denied by both parties.
Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) later reported the settlement as for $1.5 million, of which Diallo received a little less than $1 million after fees. JDD noted that negotiations between the parties had commenced after an application for diplomatic immunity by Strauss-Kahn had been rejected by the judge. Settling the suit meant that Strauss-Kahn avoided a long and humiliating examination in court.
Dismissal of case
On August 22, 2011, prosecutors filed a recommendation for dismissal of all charges against Strauss-Kahn. They told the court that inconsistencies in the accuser's testimony led to the decision to recommend all charges be dropped. Their decision to drop the case was based on a number of facts outlined in a 25-page document:
- The physical evidence indicated a sexual encounter but did not prove use of force or non-consent;
- The prosecution noted multiple instances of the accuser's untruthfulness, including fabricating the story that she was gang raped in her native Guinea to gain asylum in the U.S. (although her asylum application did not include it);
- Changing her version of the events before, during, and after the alleged assault.
Consequently, prosecutors stated they could no longer believe Diallo beyond a reasonable doubt, and could not expect any jury to do so either. Diallo's attorney, Kenneth Thompson, publicly attacked DA Vance, claiming that Vance's office had been abusive to their client, had leaked false information, and sought to undermine Diallo's credibility; he requested a stay in the case which was later denied.
On August 23, 2011, all charges against Strauss-Kahn were dismissed as requested by the prosecution. He returned to Paris on September 3, 2011. On September 9, 2011, the accuser's attorney filed a civil suit against Strauss-Kahn in New York City, followed weeks later by a motion for dismissal by Strauss-Kahn.
On September 18, 2011, Strauss-Kahn was interviewed on French TV. He conceded that his encounter with Diallo in New York had been an error and a moral failure, but denied it was a criminal act. He accused Diallo of lying about the encounter.
Conspiracy hypothesis
In an interview with Libération on April 28, 2011, Strauss-Kahn stated he was "worried his political opponent, Nicolas Sarkozy, would try to frame him with a fake rape". Paris politician and advocate of gender equality Michèle Sabban said she was convinced there was an international plot to frame him. A few days after his arrest, a poll showed that 57% of the French public believed he was the "victim of a smear campaign".
On May 15, 2011, Strauss-Kahn's political opponent Henri de Raincourt, a minister for overseas co-operation in the ruling UMP party, stated, "one cannot exclude thinking about a setup." Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed his personal doubts about the allegations.