Well sir, did you at least enjoy your stay? A very free Dominique Strauss-Kahn, his wife, Anne Sinclair, and his daughter Camille left his rented New York City townhouse on Saturday afternoon, carrying about a half-dozen pieces of luggage and headed back to the motherland. More after the jump!!
(DailyMail)–Former IMF leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn said goodbye to New York for his native France today, leaving the United States behind after the collapse of a sensational sexual assault case that cost him his job and possibly his French presidential ambitions.
Strauss-Kahn, his wife, Anne Sinclair, and his daughter Camille left his rented New York City town house on Saturday afternoon, carrying about a half-dozen pieces of luggage.
He didn’t say where he was going, but French media have reported he was expected to board a plane to Paris on Saturday.
It would be the diplomat and economist’s first return to his home country since his May arrest on charges of forcing a hotel housekeeper to perform oral sex and trying to rape her.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, spent almost a week in jail after being removed by police from a plane about to take off for Paris, six weeks under house arrest and nearly two more months barred from leaving the country before Manhattan prosecutors dropped the case last week, saying they no longer trusted the maid, Guinean immigrant Nafissatou Diallo.
Diallo is continuing to press her claims in a civil lawsuit. Strauss-Kahn denies the allegations.
And Strauss-Kahn still faces Diallo’s lawsuit in New York, though it’s unclear when he might have to be in New York for the civil case. Lawsuits can take years to play out, and defendants aren’t required to come to court dates, as they generally are in criminal cases. She’s seeking unspecified damages.
Diallo, 33, says Strauss-Kahn chased her down in his suite and attacked her after she arrived to clean it. Prosecutors said DNA evidence shows they had a sexual encounter; his lawyers say it was consensual.
After initially portraying Diallo as a compelling witness, prosecutors developed doubts about her credibility. She had told them a concocted tale of having been gang-raped in the past, among other falsehoods about her background, and they said she gave varying versions of her actions immediately after her encounter with Strauss-Kahn.
‘We simply no longer have confidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty,’ prosecutors wrote in a court filing last week.
Diallo has said she’s telling the truth about being attacked. One of her lawyers, Douglas Wigdor, has said prosecutors’ decision to abandon the criminal case ‘is an affront to Ms. Diallo and to all victims who come forward in the future.’
