Ex-IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn Monitored Around the Clock

Plan to stay in luxury building was scrapped when the tenants objected.

ByABC News
May 21, 2011, 11:18 AM

May 21, 2011— -- The former head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released Friday from Rikers Island Jail on a million dollar cash bail and is staying in a temporary housing building in lower Manhattan owned by the security company responsible for monitoring him 24 hours a day.

Under a bail agreement approved Wednesday, Strauss-Kahn, 62, will be allowed to stay in the Stroz Friedberg's corporate apartments and will be monitored around the clock by the company. Strauss-Kahn was initially going to stay in building Bristol Plaza until the luxury residential building's tenants objected.

Strauss-Kahn's current apartment is at the 21-story Empire Building located on 71 Broadway, with a view of Trinity Church's graveyard.

Strauss-Kahn arrived shortly after his release from Rikers Island, and his journalist wife, American-born journalist Anne Sinclair, arrived later.

Television reporters and crews are set up in one lane of the street. Security is heavy and reportedly armed.

Strauss-Kahn is expected to stay in the apartment for only three to four days while his family searches for a more permanent residence in the city.

As part of his bail, Strauss-Kahn is required to stay in New York and will not be allowed to leave the Stroz Friedberg building except for medical emergencies.

Once a permanent location is found, he will be permitted to leave under certain circumstances, provided the prosecution is given six hours notice.

This was welcome news to the prosecution, who were unable to convince the court that Strauss-Kahn is a flight risk.

The former IMF chief was arrested on Saturday aboard an Air France plane headed to Paris, just hours after the alleged sexual assault on a hotel maid took place.

The prosecution argued that Strauss-Kahn tried to flee once, and that he has the means and incentive to flee again.

"He has the stature and the resources to live a life of ease and comfort in parts of the world that are beyond this court," Assistant District Attorney John McConnell argued in court Thursday.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Accused of Sexual Assault

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, once famous in Europe as a possible candidate to be the next president, is now internationally infamous after a maid at New York City's Sofitel Hotel accused the Strauss-Kahn of allegedly attacking her and forcing her to submit to oral sex.

A grand jury indicted the former IMF chief on seven counts - which carry up to 25 years in prison - including charges of criminal sexual assault, attempted rape and sexual abuse.

Law enforcement officials say last Saturday Strauss-Kahn came out of his his $3,000-a-night suite's bathroom naked and attempted to rape the 32-year-old West African woman who was cleaning it.

The district attorney says the forensic evidence appears to be consistent with her account.

ABC News has confirmed that police collected several pieces of physical evidence from the hotel room, which are being tested for DNA, including a swath of carpet.

Investigators say information downloaded from the suite door's electronic card reader indicates the maid entered the room and never closed the door.

The hotel policy requires maids to leave the door open when cleaning. The open door, they say, is proof that the women entered the room to work, not to engage in consensual sex.

Strauss-Kahn's resigned from his position as Managing Director of the IMF on Wednesday, saying the he wanted, "to protect this institution which I have served with honor and devotion," and to devote himself to the upcoming trial.

His next court appearance is set for June 6.