Dominique Strauss-Kahn Lawyers Have 'Constructive' Meeting With Prosecutors
Strauss-Kahn team looking for sex assault charges to go away as DA regroups.
July 6, 2011— -- Lawyers for former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said today they had a "constructive" meeting with prosecutors in their effort to have the sexual assault charges against him dropped.
Prosecutors reportedly want Strauss-Kahn to plead guilty to a lesser charge.
"The investigative process is continuing, and no decisions have been made," a spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said, according to New York ABC News affiliate WABC.
Strauss-Kahn has been charged with trying to rape a housekeeper and forcing her to perform oral sex in a New York City hotel in May. The next scheduled court appearance is July 18.
"There is ample evidence to suggest that this case is going nowhere and going nowhere fast," criminal lawyer Robin Sax said. "But I think because public perception is so essential here, we will see the district attorney's office at least close this case properly and make sure that they have a complete packet before they do the official dump."
The prosecutor's office said last week that questions about the victim's credibility had crippled the Manhattan district attorney's case, which resulted in his being released from house arrest.
Prosecutors outlined her lies and inconsistencies about the case in a three-page letter. It included details of a recorded call from the hotel maid to her boyfriend in an immigration jail in Arizona, where she told him, "Don't worry. This guy has a lot of money. I know what I am doing."
In addition to cheating on her taxes and lying about her income, the hotel maid also falsely claimed on her application for political asylum to the United States that she'd been gang raped in her native country of Guinea. But even after she admitted to altering her account of what happened after the encounter with Strauss-Kahn, prosecutors maintained there was still evidence to suggest a sexual assault had taken place.
But Sax, a former prosecutor with no connection to this case, is not convinced that the case is strong enough to proceed to trial. "A prosecutor has an obligation to bring charges only when they can believe that they can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, Sax said. "And at the end of the day, if you can't believe your witness, you don't have a case."
Strauss-Kahn's defense team indicated last week that unless prosecutors presented strong evidence, the former frontrunner to become the next president of France would not be willing to plead guilty to any crime.
If that is true, the district attorney's only options would be to drop the charges or take it to trial.
