Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF Head, Picked Out Of Lineup In Sex Case: Police.
NEW YORK — Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s reputation with women earned him the nickname “the great seducer,” and not even an affair with a subordinate could knock the International Monetary Fund leader off a political path pointed in the direction of the French presidency. All that changed with charges that he sexually assaulted a maid in his hotel room, a case that generated shock and revulsion, especially in his home country.
Police said the maid picked Strauss-Kahn out of a lineup. Unless the charges are quickly dropped, they could destroy his chances in a presidential race that is just starting to heat up.
An arraignment expected Sunday night was postponed until Monday. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer William Taylor said testing for evidence delayed the arraignment.
“Our client willingly consented to a scientific and forensic examination,” Taylor said. Strauss-Kahn is “tired, but he’s fine.”
The IMF, which plays a key role in efforts to control the European debt crisis, named an acting leader and said it remains “fully functioning and operational” despite Saturday’s arrest of its managing director.
A second lawyer for Strauss-Kahn, Benjamin Brafman, told The Associated Press that his client will plead not guilty. He and another lawyer went in and out of the Harlem police precinct where Strauss-Kahn was being held Sunday afternoon, and declined to answer reporters’ questions until the arraignment. A somber-looking Strauss-Kahn was later escorted out of the precinct, his arms behind his back.
“He intends to vigorously defend these charges and he denies any wrongdoing,” Brafman said Sunday night.
Brafman is one of the city’s most high-profile defense attorneys. His clients have included mobsters and such celebrities as Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and ex-New York Giants star Plaxico Burress.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested less than four hours after the alleged assault, plucked from first class on a Paris-bound Air France flight that was just about to leave the gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
