IMF chief claims consent in hotel ‘attack’
* French honcho claims ‘consent’ * Deemed a flight risk, denied bail * Lunched with daughter afterward
France’s leading presidential candidate may have pounced on a Manhattan hotel maid — but she wanted it, his lawyer asserted in court yesterday, hinting at what could be an explosive defense.
« The evidence, we believe, will not be consistent with a forcible encounter, » said Ben Brafman, the high-powered lawyer of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, at the suspect’s sensational arraignment in a packed criminal courtroom.
A source close to the defense later told The Post, « There may well have been consent. »
Disturbing information also emerged about Strauss-Kahn’s behavior after he left the hotel — including his coolly having lunch with his daughter, who lives in Manhattan, at a restaurant about a half-hour after the alleged attack.
The developments came as an exhausted and humiliated-looking Strauss-Kahn — a financial jet-setter and world politico — was ordered held without bail by a leery Judge Melissa Jackson, who noted that he had been caught just in the nick of time at JFK Airport.
Brafman tried to convince the judge that Strauss-Khan — who faces four felonies, including attempted rape and criminal sexual acts — was far from a flight risk.
« This isn’t someone who was about to flee the jurisdiction . . . He . . . has four children, and being accused of being a rapist is something he wants resolved, » Brafman said of his 62-year-old client.
He asked the judge to free him on $1 million bail — Strauss-Kahn’s loyal, New York-born wife, Anne Sinclair, had already wired the entire amount in cash, he said.
The white-haired, debonair dad would even stay with his 26-year-old daughter, Camille, a married poli-sci student at Columbia University while awaiting hearings, Brafman said.
Camille and her husband arrived about halfway through the hearing to support her father. The pair, both grim-faced and dressed in jeans, said nothing as they stood in the back of the courtroom.
But Chief Assistant District Attorney Daniel Alonzo, the second-in-command in the office, who had demanded that Strauss-Kahn be remanded without bail, scoffed at the idea.
« It’s just like Roman Polanski — it’s the same, exact situation, » Alonzo warned Jackson, referring to the movie director who was charged with a sex act involving a child in California in 1977 and fled to France to dodge prosecution for more than 30 years.
France has no extradition agreements with other countries, and Strauss-Kahn faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
New York Post
Selon le New York Post, le tabloïd qui a révélé l’arrestation de DSK, les avocats du patron du FMI pourraient plaider le rapport consenti. Une information qu’il faut prendre avec précaution. –