Lawyer: IMF chief denies NYC sex-assault charges

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By COLLEEN LONG

NEW YORK (AP) - The leader of the International Monetary Fund and a possible candidate for president of France was yanked from an airplane moments before it was to depart for Paris and arrested in the alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid, police said.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested on charges of a criminal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment. He had been taken off the Air France flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday afternoon by officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and was turned over to New York police, said Paul J. Browne, New York Police Department spokesman.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, told The Associated Press that his client will plead not guilty at his expected Sunday afternoon arraignment.

"He denies all the charges against him," Brafman said. "And that's all I can really say right now."

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110515/D9N7TQ100.html

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A member of the NYPD crime scene unit enters the Sofitel hotel in New York, Saturday, May 14, 2011. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the leader of the International Monetary Fund and a possible candidate for president of France, was pulled from an airplane moments before he was to fly to Paris and was being questioned Saturday by police in connection with the violent sexual assault of a hotel maid from the Sofitel, police said. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. whoa...this ought to be interesting. Very interesting.

[somone]

2. He should have listened to Sarkozy

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8515092/Dominique-Strauss-Kahn-timeline-of-controversies.html

2007: After he IMF managing director in 2007, Jean Quatremer, a journalist at Libération, wrote: "The only real problem for Strauss-Kahn, is his relation to women. Too forward, he often brushes with harassment. It is a problem known to the media but that nobody talks about (we are in France)." Frederic Lefebvre, an adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy, claimed shortly afterwards in a biography that Mr Strauss-Kahn "wouldn't last a week" if he entered a presidential election, due to the weight of damaging allegations that would emerge. Mr Lefebvre claimed to have seen photographs showing Mr Strauss-Kahn leaving La Chandelle, a popular Parisian wife-swapping club, and said they would be circulated if Mr Strauss-Kahn entered an election. Tristane Banon, a writer, claims she had to fend Mr Strauss-Kahn off with kicks and punches when he invited her to a meeting in a room furnished with a double bed and a television. He said he went at her "like a chimpanzee on heat" during the alleged incident in 2002. Her husband, a Socialist politician, said she spoke to DSK about it and he said: "I don't know what came over me, I lost the plot."

2008: DSK is forced to apologise publicly to IMF employees and his wife for the trouble caused by his affair with Mrs Piroska Nagy, a Hungarian subordinate in the international organisation. The IMF board called it "a serious error of judgment," but ruled he had not abused his position. Mrs Piroska Nagy later declared: "I believe that man has a problem." Aurélie Filipetti, a Socialist MP, told Le Temps that she had once been the object of a "very heavy-handed flirt" by DSK. "I made sure I was not alone with him in a closed room," she said. Danielle Evenou, a French actress and wife of a former Socialist minister, said on French radio: "Who hasn't been cornered by Dominique Strauss-Kahn?"

2010: Release of The Secret of a Presidential Contender, written by a woman hidden under the pseudonym Cassandre, who was said to be one of his female aides. It cites "rumours of multiple extramarital liaisons beyond the one he confessed to with an IMF employee in 2008." In her book, the author writes: "Like all great political animals, he has trouble controlling himself." The French press quote President Nicolas Sarkozy as warning DSK before his Washington appointment, saying: "You know, over there they don't joke about this sort of thing. Your life will be passed under a magnifying glass. Avoid taking the lift alone with interns. France cannot permit a scandal."

[Po_d Mainiac]

3. Gee some people don't like being fucked by banksters n/t

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Golddigger if there ever was one

Banksters, like 'em or not, don't need to work on the maids, they can afford all that New York has to offer. c.f., the 1980s movies "Wall Street" and "The Bonfire of the Vanities".

[captain jack]

5. Banksters don't want what they can have. n/t

[msanthrope]

7. More rape apologia--"He didn't need to rape because he could afford a hooker?"

Men rape for power. He did it because he could.

[riverwalker]

6. wait for the DNA

her DNA under his nails, his on her clothes and body, they have it all. Gold digger, MY ASS. It was not sex he was after, it was domination and power. A high class NY hooker would only provide co-operative sex, as would his wife, he was not looking for co-operation. The guy is a pathological creep, motivated by POWER and ego. He wanted to dominate.

[Zorra]

8. A hotel maid normally has access to all kinds of things containing a

guest's DNA. Semen included, in some instances.

The perfect scenario for a scandal set-up.

I am not saying he did it or didn't assault the hotel worker; just that this is something to consider.

But if someone, or an organization, or a government, with a great deal of wealth and power wanted to set him up for political purposes, this would be a likely scenario, especially given his reputation for promiscuity.