DSK Rape Case
Takeaway No. 5:
You Have to Be
the Perfect Victim
Creative Commons/Florian SEROUSSIBased on the word of two unnamed “well-placed law enforcement officials,” the New York Times is reporting that the sexual assault case against former IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn “is on the verge of collapse.”
The impending collapse is due to “major holes” in the credibility of the 32-year-old Guinean housekeeper who on May 14th accused the liberal French presidential candidate known as either The Great Seducer or a serial offender, depending on the source.
Anyway, here are the “major holes” prosecutors have uncovered, as filtered by three male Times reporters and their editors, whose genders I don’t know:
“The woman had a phone conversation with an incarcerated man within a day of her encounter with Mr. Strauss-Kahn in which she discussed the possible benefits of pursuing the charges against him. The conversation was recorded.”
I’d like to hear the audio of that discussion. I do wonder if it also contained anything about, say, the possible drawbacks of being a private citizen and West African immigrant cleaning a hotel room when a rich, powerful, 62-year-old Frenchman emerges naked, rips your pantyhose and forces you to perform oral sex on him.
“That man, the investigators learned, had been arrested on charges of possessing 400 pounds of marijuana.”
OK. She talked to a weed dealer. And that makes her less likely to have been sexually assaulted while doing her job?
“He is among a number of individuals who made multiple cash deposits, totaling around $100,000, into the woman’s bank account over the last two years. The deposits were made in Arizona, Georgia, New York and Pennsylvania. The investigators also learned that she was paying hundreds of dollars every month in phone charges to five companies. The woman had insisted she had only one phone and said she knew nothing about the deposits except that they were made by a man she described as her fiancé and his friends.”
Involvement in a money-laundering scheme is risky, particularly when you’re the single mother of a 15-year-old daughter and a West African immigrant in the United States on an asylum visa. You know what else is risky? Being a hotel housekeeper charged with cleaning the rooms of powerful men.
“In addition, one of the officials said, she told investigators that her application for asylum included mention of a previous rape, but there was no such account in the application. She also told them that she had been subjected to genital mutilation, but her account to the investigators differed from what was contained in the asylum application.”
So is this a question about whether she’d actually been raped and undergone genital mutilation in Guinea—or whether these violations made it into her asylum paperwork and were consistent with her statements to investigators? Is the prosecution really willing to discount what it first described as her “outcries to multiple witnesses immediately after the [DSK] incident, both to hotel staff and law enforcement”? How about the full sexual assault forensic examination they used to corroborate her accusations against an impossibly high-profile and well-connected politician? Is that off the table now, too?
The housekeeper still maintains that Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her. But prosecutors will likely drop felony charges against DSK because they’re worried that the woman once described as an unassuming hardworking young Muslim widow will make a poor witness.
You know what this mess tells me? That if you report a rape, you have to be perfect. You can’t make foolish choices. You can’t talk to a drug felon on the phone, (especially if they’re one of a disproportionate number of people of color incarcerated for drug crimes.) You can’t be too poor to hire investigators to do their own digging. You can’t live in housing associated with HIV. You can’t be an immigrant. You can’t be a woman. You can’t be a woman of color. Unless you’re the right kind of witness, you just can’t afford to tell the police or anyone else that a man with power, money, global connections and sense of entitlement raped you. Because you’re below his, the prosecution’s and The New York Times’s pay grade.
If Dominique Strauss-Kahn is innocent of this crime, this is justice. If he’s guilty, he’ll do this again.
Either way, the mechanisms of victim-blaming will keep on churning.
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Strauss-Kahn,
Domestic Immigrants and
Money, Power, Respect
See I believe in money, power and respect. First you get the money. Then you get the motherf–kin’ power. And after you get the f–kin’ power. You get the f–kin’ ni–az to respect you. It’s the key to life. ~Lil’ Kim
In 1998 when Lil’ Kim penned these lyrics in the Hip Hop anthem, “Money, Power, Respect,” she was likely drawing upon her early years as a struggling teen on the streets of Brooklyn with limited resources and no real place to call home. In my naivety, I assumed that Lil’ Kim was talking about something she in fact had, not what she and countless others like her would spend a lifetime longing for. Today, these lyrics continue to ring true for women and men alike. For black diasporic women and girls, they are particularly profound. However, for immigrant domestic workers, Lil’ Kim’s lyrics are prophetic. Money, power and respect is exactly what former IMF Managing Director (and front-runner for the 2012 French presidential election) Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, has, and what the unnamed 32-year-old Guinean housekeeper, who accused Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault in a Manhattan hotel in May, needs to be taken seriously and to win her case against him.
According to the woman’s initial testimony, she entered Strauss-Kahn’s suite at approximately 1 p.m. believing it was unoccupied. As the housekeeper cleaned the foyer, Strauss-Kahn “came out of the bathroom, fully naked, and attempted to sexually assault her.” As she fought him, he “locked the door to the suite,” “grabbed her and pulled her into the bedroom and onto the bed.” After which, “he…dragged her down the hallway to the bathroom, where he sexually assaulted her a second time.” After fleeing, the woman reported the incident to hotel personnel who called 911. Upon boarding Air France Flight 23, Strauss-Kahn was apprehended and taken into custody, throwing the French political world, U.S. media and life of the 32-year-old Guinean housekeeper into utter mayhem.
Just last week The New York Times reported that Strauss-Kahn prosecution was “near collapse.” “Major holes” were found in the credibility of the Guinean housekeeper, although forensic tests found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between the two, and despite evidence of force (i.e. torn clothing, bruising, etc.). According to the prosecution, the accuser has repeatedly lied since her initial allegation on May 14.
Among the discoveries, one of the officials said, are issues involving the asylum application of the 32-year-old housekeeper, who is Guinean, and possible links to people involved in criminal activities, including drug dealing and money laundering.
Ultimately, the accuser falls short of the Victorian ideal. Like the rest of us, she is neither perfect nor without blemish (nor can she pay to appear as such). Thus, the circumstances surrounding the encounter on May 14, notwithstanding forensic and physical evidence, and personal testimony (of the victim and others alike), must be called into question. Moreover, Strauss-Kahn, who has already fallen from political grace and been replaced (perhaps conveniently), must now beexonerated (maybe, just in time to announce his candidacy for the French presidency). According to The New York Times he wasreleased July 2. The case is now moving toward dismissal.
Some will undoubtedly see the most recent turn of events as just. However, others, myself included, are eerily reminded of Lil’ Kims’ verse in “Money, Power, Respect.” While there are admittedly several unanswered questions surrounding this case, few things are clear: violent sex happened in Strauss-Kahn’s Manhattan hotel suite on May 14, respect for black female life is largely improbable without money and power, especially for immigrant domestic workers and others, and those with money and power can pretty much do what they damn well please. This is not a projection. It is a reality.
The 32-year-old housekeeper isn’t the first to complain about Strauss-Kahn. The married father of four has a history of allegations against him, strangely earning him the nickname “the great seducer.” However, contrary to belief there is nothing seductive about rape. And, just because one has never been tried doesn’t mean they are innocent. Also, while we are at it, just because the accuser waited to tell her story, didn’t have a perfect life, was less than forthcoming about her experience, or, as in this case, was perhaps even downright untruthful about some of the details, does not mean violence, to which Strauss-Kahn should be held accountable, did not occur.
History reveals a ritualistic raping (and the threat of rape) of black diasporic women in general and black female domestic workers in particular by white men who use social capital and economic prowess to not only silence their prey, but to reconfigure them altogether. While we should not rush to judgment, we also cannot afford to ignore the growing archive. The defense made it clear that they would make the credibility of the woman a focus of their case. Of course this is a common rape strategy across the board. Rape trials are rarely solely about sexual violence, and often (over) emphasize the victims personal life. Sadly, the burden of “proof” lies there–in one’s ability to avoid reasonable doubt–through the unquestionable presentation of a “perfect” life (something most often bought by those with money, power and respect, if not already privileged by race, class and gender).
So, the question is, how does one avoid reasonable doubt when one is already stigmatized due to race, ethnicity and class, and when violence against one is so familiar and normative that suffering is unfathomable? Further, how does one avoid reasonable doubt when rape is historically a normative mode of sexuality, the black female body is made the originary locus of liability, coercion is confused with consent, class and social structures imagine the black female body to be both will-less and always-willing simultaneously, and white culpability has a history of displacement, particularly as white sexual violence is perpetuated under the rubric of seduction, paternalism and hierarchy (within which violence is a legitimate form of engagement)? Moreover, how does one avoid reasonable doubt when she is not seen as a person with innate dignity and worth in the first place?
Apparently, the accuser lied about being raped before. That is, she recanted her story after giving it. However, anyone who has been on the underside of sexual violence knows that there are many possible reasons for this. Recanting doesn’t necessarily mean that rape did not happen. Living under a symbolic rape cloud is burdensome on many levels. Nevertheless, lying about it can be equally death-dealing. To this end, one might say that doubt is reasonable. However, if sexual violence occurred on May 14, and I believe it did, what bearing does the accusers previous lie have on what happened in Strauss-Kahn’s suite that Saturday afternoon? While it may sway how we read into the case (in the same way that Strauss-Kahn’s history of sexual inappropriateness does), DNA results confirm sexual contact and other evidence corroborate violence. That is the issue at hand. Let’s be clear, a woman was assaulted.
The defense will likely posit that contact was consensual, or as The New York Post suggests, that the defendant was a “hooker,” “doing double duty as a prostitute, collecting cash on the side from male guests.” One might reason, if true then presumably violence was warranted. Not! Not only is this stereotype as trite as they come, sexual violence is neither earned nor justifiable, not even for those with money and power.
A woman was assaulted. According to her testimony, violence came unrequested. And as far as I know, the prosecution has yet to find any “holes” there. Sure, it is her word against his, not to mention there are enough stereotypes on both ends to make our heads spin! On one hand we have the rich white Jewish womanizer. On the other hand we have the poor Guinean Muslim immigrant widow (possibly HIV positive with a potential criminal history). To be sure, this case is ripe for multiple “bold imaginings.” And yes, there is also a taped phone call between the accuser and an incarcerated acquaintance that highlights talk about the benefits of such a case. While the context and particulars of that conversation are unknown, it certainly adds to such fantasying. However, does such behavior, whatever you may think about it, mean the housekeeper was not violated on May 14? Is it possible that she was in fact violated and wishes to financially benefit? She is an immigrant seeking asylum, in search of the “American Dream.” To this end, the accuser is no different than most other American’s who make capital gains off of misdeeds against them. This is in fact “the American way.”
A woman was assaulted, but apparently that’s neither here nor there. She stands on the wrong side of history and power and thus her past outweighs that of the defendant. Let us also be mindful that French elections are underway. Perhaps the 32-year-old Guinean housekeeper was always a “non…factor.” It’s clear that Struass-Kahn found her to be “rape-able.” However, one can’t help but to wonder if the woman was exploited by French political powers wanting to put Strauss-Kahn out of office and then subsequently discarded altogether by those hoping to put his name back in the presidential hat. What cannot be ignored as Patricia Williams at The Nation points out, is that Strauss-Kahn was not only on his way to becoming France’s next president, if successful he would have been the first Jewish president. In addition,
As head of the IMF, he led that institution in a distinctly progressive manner. He sharply critiqued corrupt American bankers and banking practices and, early on, predicted the collapse of the mortgage market. As a center-left Socialist party member, he was close to negotiating a European Union bailout for Greece. And his elimination from the election empowers the candidacy of Marine LePen, head of the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic National Front party, whose popularity, alarmingly enough, currently polls higher than that of Nicolas Sarkozy.
Nevertheless, with the recent turn of events, I wouldn’t be surprised if we learned later that this case was ultimately deployed by Strauss-Kahn’s supporters as a form of political peroxide. As the case moves toward dismissal, he is slowly but surely becoming the honorable victim. Money, power and the right pigmentation can do that for you. Yet, what most brown and black women know is that a woman was likely assaulted on May 14. And while her surrounding narrative may raise reasonable doubt, her story about the violence that occurred on that day has not waivered. Again, it is of course her word against his. Unfortunately, she lacks the money, power and respect for many of us to really hear her (entire) story. Somehow, I believe there is much more to this narrative than what meets the eye, and there are details that we will never know. To be sure, this case is about as complicated as they come. One thing is for sure, it serves as a definitive reminder of who actually “runs the world,” and unfortunately it’s not us girls…
__________________________
DSK Accuser
Sues New York Post
for Smearing Her
as a "Hooker"
As I noted on Saturday, the New York Post has outdone itself. Over the weekend the paper deemed the accuser in the DSK rape case a "hooker," based on an anonymous "source close to the defense investigation" who suggested, but did not outright claim, that the woman was a sex worker. (Quoth the source, "There is information . . . of her getting extraordinary tips, if you know what I mean. And it's not for bringing extra f—king towels.") Now the accuser is fighting back against the Post's irresponsible reporting. Reuters:
The hotel maid who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault sued the New York Post and five of its journalists for libel on Tuesday for reporting that she was a prostitute.
The 32-year-old Guinean immigrant accused the Post of publishing defamatory articles between July 2-4 "in an apparent desperate attempt to bolster its rapidly plunging sales."
The suit filed in Bronx state court seeks damages to be determined at trial for articles it said the Post knew were false or should have known were false before they were published.
Good for her.
__________________________
Tristane Banon To File
Sexual Assault Lawsuit
Against Dominique Strauss-Kahn
MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN AND ANGELA CHARLTON 07/ 4/11 06:10 PM ET 
With France debating his possible return to presidential politics, Strauss-Kahn swiftly hit back at author Tristane Banon's plans to take him to court over the attempted rape accusations, labeling her account "imaginary" and countering with his own plans to file a criminal complaint of slander.
The sordid exchange may have deep ramifications for the 2012 presidential race in France, where the surprise weakening of the sexual assault case against Strauss-Kahn in New York last week sparked a fierce debate about whether he should return to politics if the American case against him collapses completely.
Before Banon's announcement, polls showed voters were evenly split about whether Strauss-Kahn, 62, should try to revive a career that until recently had him on track to take on conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy in the race to be France's next leader.
"DSK Back?" the left-leaning daily Liberation asked on its front page Monday.
Some politicians and pundits see Strauss-Kahn, who won plaudits for his stewardship of the International Monetary Fund, as a victim of overzealous American prosecutors and journalists who denied him the presumption of innocence when a maid accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex in his Manhattan hotel room.
"He was crushed, then, by that fraction of the American judicial apparatus that, by putting Dominique Strauss-Kahn in stocks, by humiliating him before the entire world, by ruthlessly pursuing him, has probably ruined his life," celebrity philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy wrote on The Daily Beast website.
Others have expressed disgust with allegations that the Socialist politician routinely subjected women to crude sexual advances, and lived a luxurious lifestyle out of touch with ordinary French people, even in the glare of press attention in New York.
"Between his luxury tastes and other subjects, Dominique Strauss-Kahn has not offered a very positive image recently," Sports Minister Chantal Jouanno, a Sarkozy ally, said on Europe-1 radio.
Strauss-Kahn has been living under house arrest in a $50,000 (euro34,500)-a-month town house in the trendy TriBeCa neighborhood. Once released, Strauss-Kahn had dinner at a pricey Manhattan restaurant.
"To see Strauss-Kahn freed then straight away eat in a luxury restaurant with friends, that makes me sick," Banon told the magazine L'Express in an account published Monday. "I only want one thing, that he comes back to France, with his presumption of innocence, so that we can go before a court."
Banon, 31, said on a 2007 television show that she had been attacked five years earlier by a politician she had interviewed for a book in his apartment. She later identified the man as Strauss-Kahn.
"It finished very violently," she said on the television show. "I kicked him. He opened my bra. He tried to undo my jeans. It finished very badly."
Lawyer David Koubbi said Banon had been dissuaded from filing charges by her mother, a regional councilor in Strauss-Kahn's Socialist party. Her mother, Anne Mansouret, admitted in a French television interview in May that she had urged her daughter not to file a complaint after the incident.
Banon came forward again after Strauss-Kahn's May 14 arrest in New York, but Koubbi said his client had no intention of pressing charges while the American prosecution was going on because the two cases should be kept separate.
Banon is now moving forward, Koubbi told The Associated Press. He denied that decision was connected to the weakening of the U.S. case.
"It is all the same to me what happens in the hours and days to come in the United States," he said.
Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said that Strauss-Kahn "has always said that the incident described by Ms Banon since 2007 is imaginary."
"He notes that this complaint comes quite conveniently right at the moment when there is no longer the slightest doubt about the false nature of the accusations against him in the United States," attorneys Henri Leclerc and Frederique Baulieu said in a joint statement.
Koubbi did not respond to phone and text messages left asking about the slander accusation.
If Banon files her complaint, a prosecutor can conduct a preliminary investigation to determine if there is enough evidence to support charges against Strauss-Kahn. Preliminary charges are followed by a lengthier investigation, sometimes lasting years, to determine if the case should go to trial before a judge.
The same process would apply to the slander complaint against Banon.
Prosecutors could decide not to pursue the case against Strauss-Kahn if they find evidence he engaged in forcible sexual contact that fell short of attempted rape. The statute of limitations on the charge of "sexual assault" is three years, while attempted rape charges can be filed for as many as 10 years after the alleged crime.
Strauss-Kahn has relinquished his passport to authorities in New York. Another court hearing would be needed for him to get it back. His next appearance is scheduled for July 18 – five days after the deadline for candidates to register in the Socialist Party primary.
"Let's acknowledge that if Strauss-Kahn decides to come back as a candidate on our side, no one will try to oppose him using some calendar," Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry said before Banon's announcement.
The Socialist Party's spokesman appeared to disagree, an indication of the confusion and disagreement within the party about betting the opposition's 2012 chances on Strauss-Kahn.
"We can't base the (political) calendar, which involves millions of French people, on the American judicial calendar," party spokesman Benoit Hamon said Monday.
A poll released Monday found that 51 percent of French people found that Strauss-Kahn no longer had a political future, versus 42 percent who thought he did.
The telephone poll of 956 adults selected as a demographically representative sample was conducted July 1 and 2 by the Ipsos Public Affairs institute for the magazine Le Point. No margin of error was provided.
Another poll out Sunday conducted by Harris Interactive poll for the newspaper Le Parisien showed 49 percent of those surveyed saying 'yes' to the question "Without prejudging his innocence or guilt, do you want DSK to come back to the French political scene one day?"
At least some were won over by what they perceived as his mistreatment in the U.S.
"I had no intention of supporting him in the first round, but if he returns to French political life I will certainly vote for him," Jean-Rene Gendre, 63, said as he went shopping in central Paris. "What happened to him I think was a terrible manipulation."
Forty-five percent of respondents to the Harris poll said they didn't want Strauss-Kahn back in politics and six percent didn't answer the question. The agency asked a demographically representative group of 1,000 people 18 years old and older to fill out the July 1-2 online survey. No margin of error was provided.
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Sylvie Corbet and Greg Keller in Paris contributed to this report.