Charges To Be Dropped
In Strauss-Kahn Case
Monday Aug 22, 2011 – by Jamilah Lemieux
In a denouement that will surprise few of us, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has filed paperwork asking that all charges be dropped in the Domonique Strauss-Kahn rape trial. Lawyers for accuser Nafissatou Diallo claim that they were informed of this decision in a meeting that lasted less than thirty seconds and that they were not allowed to ask any questions regarding the move, which will likely clear the former IMF President of all criminal liablity for the alleged assault in a Sofitel suite this past May.
“The nature and number of the complainant’s falsehoods leave us unable to credit her version of events beyond a reasonable doubt, whatever the truth may be about the encounter between the complainant and the defendant,” states the paperwork filed by the DA. “If we do not believe her beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so.”
The New York Times reports that Diallo’s lawyers maintain that their client has not been treated fairly. “The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, has denied the right of a woman to get justice in a rape case,” said Kenneth P. Thompson in a statement to the media. “He has not only turned his back on this victim but he has also turned his back on the forensic, medical and other physical evidence in this case. If the Manhattan district attorney, who is elected to protect our mothers, our daughters, our sisters, our wives and our loved ones, is not going to stand up for them when they’re raped or sexually assaulted, who will?”
Thompson says that Diallo and he brought in for a meeting with prosecutors during which she was told “Nafi, we’re going to dismiss the case. You have lied to us repeatedly We can’t win the case.” The three attorneys then exited the room without saying anything further to her or Thompson, who added “It was disrespectful, it was absolutely disrespectful. They didn’t have the common courtesy to answer one question that the victim posed.”
Interesting fact: in the prosecutors report, there is a note that states that the dismissal recommendation “does not purport to make factual findings. Rather, we simply no longer have confidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty.”
A taped conversation between Diallo and a friend who is incarcerated in Arizona marked the rapid decline of the prosecutions faith in the accuser, as they claimed that she was heard discussing ways to capitalize off of Strauss-Kahn’s fortune. Thompson maintains that there were errors made in the translation of the conversation from Fulani to English and that his client spoke of no such plan.
Diallo also revealed to prosecutors that she’d lied about being gang raped in her native Guinea in order to secure asylum in the United States, which also harmed their perception of her credibility. Strauss-Kahn is currently facing charges for an alleged attempted rape, this time in his native France back in 2003