DSK accuser admitted that she lied

So much for that case.

The accuser initially told prosecutors and the grand jury she fled to the hallway after the incident and waited for Strauss-Kahn to leave, and informed a supervisor of what happened shortly after, prosecutors said.

"The complainant (accuser) has since admitted that this account was false and that after the incident in Suite 2806, she proceeded to clean a nearby room and then returned to Suite 2806 and began to clean that suite before she reported the incident to her supervisor," the letter said.
-Reuters

Obviously, this doesn't prove that DSK didn't rape her, but it does mean that her credibility is shot, and that's more important in this legal system.

If charges are eventually dropped, Strauss-Kahn, 62, may be motivated to bring a civil suit against New York City police officers or prosecutors in the District Attorney's office.

"He lost his position at the IMF," said Michael Joseph, an attorney who specializes in malicious prosecutions. "His economic damages are potentially huge."
-Thomson Reuters

He can't sue to get back his frontrunning political clout back though.

Case against DSK might collapse?

“It is a mess, a mess on both sides.”

The case against former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn is aparently not going so well. Forensic evidence confirms that there was a sexual encounter between DSK and the Sofitel Hotel housekeeper, but her credibility is eroding.

According to the two officials, 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.

That man, the investigators learned, had been arrested on charges of possessing 400 pounds of marijuana. 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.

According to the two officials, 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.

That man, the investigators learned, had been arrested on charges of possessing 400 pounds of marijuana. 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.
-New York Times

DSK might be freed from house arrest, and the felony charges may be dismissed. Too bad Christine Lagarde already has his old job already.

DSK pleads not guilty

Former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn entered a formal not guilty plea this morning to charges of sexually assaulting a Manhattan hotel maid.
The former front-runner French presidential candidate appeared in court for the first time since he was released on $6 million in cash bail and bond last month. He has been under house arrest that includes 24-hour monitors and armed guards, first in a downtown Manhattan apartment and now in the deluxe, $50,000-a-month Tribeca townhouse featured below.

Meanwhile, in a significantly less posh part of town, the housekeeper DSK forcibly sodomized and attempted to rape (allegedly) shares a tiny apartment with her teenage daughter in a building reserved for people with HIV and/or AIDS, and hasn't been able to work since the assault.

The maid's attorney, Kenneth Thompson, said she would testify in court and condemned speculation that she either made up the attack or exaggerated the claims.

"The victim wants you to know that all of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's power, money and influence throughout the world will not keep the truth about what he did to her in that hotel room from coming out," Thompson said.

Thompson said the 32-year-old woman has not worked since the encounter because she is traumatized. And she will not settle the case or back down.

"She is standing up for women around the world sexually assaulted who are too afraid to come forward," he said.
-NBC New York

DSK daily recap

Wow, so today was a full one on the DSK-related news front.
1) He resigned as the “head” of the IMF
2) He was granted bail
3) A grand jury voted to proceed with the indictment against him

Representing the defendant, William Taylor argued to the court that Strauss-Kahn was an "honourable man" who had only one desire at this time, "to clear his name". He presented the judge with the details of a New York security company, Stroz Friedberg, that would be responsible for ensuring that the former IMF chief would not flee the country.
Stringent conditions would include an electronic bracelet that would send a signal to the company and a police station the moment Strauss-Kahn left the property, video cameras to monitor him inside the property, and a 24-hour rotation of armed guards who would be physically present at the apartment.
Taylor said that Strauss-Kahn's wife, Anne Sinclair, had bought a property in Manhattan under her name, and that it had been scoped out and approved by the security company as a suitable location for him to remain under house arrest.
-The Guardian

Representing common sense, New York state Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus noted that, “If the defendant were to be able to leave the country it might very well be impossible to bring him back.”

Must be nice to:
1) Regularly stay in $3,000 a night luxury hotel suites
2) Be able to ride first class anytime without having to make reservations
3) Have the wherewithal to purchase any property in Manhattan, let alone on a few days notice
I can’t think of a worse candidate to grant bail to.
Actually, I can’t think of a better candidate to have his mugshot, or better yet a pic of him doing the perp walk, floating around on the internet.

As for his resignation, the posturing to name his successor started quickly.

European officials, who have picked IMF heads for 65 years under a deal that also gives the U.S. the lock on the top World Bank post, moved to retain the privilege, with Sweden backing French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. Russia and South Africa have called for an emerging-market candidate, while some Asian policy makers suggested someone from their region.
-Bloomberg

At the risk of understating the obvious, this is very interesting.

Lagarde is the favorite for the job, according to odds at London-based bookmaker William Hill Plc. It is offering six pounds ($9.71) for every four pounds bet that Lagarde will be the next IMF head, down from odds of 20-1 previously.
Nout Wellink, a European Central Bank Governing Council member, told the Dutch talk show Knevel & Van den Brink late last night: “I know a fantastic candidate, that’s Jean-Claude Trichet,” whose term as ECB president ends in October.
Japan, which has the second-biggest share of voting power at the IMF with 6.25 percent, has yet to decide on its stance, Tetsuro Fukuyama, the government’s deputy chief cabinet secretary, told reporters in Tokyo today.
The U.S., which has the largest share of votes, at 16.8 percent, has also given no indication of a preference.
South African and Russian officials said yesterday the next head should come from an emerging economy. Trevor Manuel, head of South Africa’s National Planning Commission, is “highly respected in the world,” Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said of his predecessor in an interview in Pretoria.
Russian central bank Deputy Chairman Sergei Shvetsov said a developing country should be given the chance to run the IMF to better reflect the role of those economies in global trade. South Korea’s central bank governor made similar remarks before the announcement late yesterday that Strauss-Kahn would resign.
-Bloomberg

Russia wants someone from the under-developed world eh?
What say you China?

BEIJING (MNI) - The new IMF leadership needs to reflect changes in the world economic order and be more representative of emerging market economies, Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said Thursday in his first public comments since the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
"The senior management team of the IMF should better reflect changes in world economic patterns and should be more representative of emerging market economies," he said.
-iMarket News

Oh. Et tu China?
For some perspective on the enormity of what is at stake here, we turn to the ever-reliable Tyler Durden:

It is also safe to say that with China now unofficially Europe's backstopper (and there were those wondering why China is buying all those Spanish and Portuguese bonds), what China wants, China gets.
-Zero Hedge

DSK mugshot

DSK victim may be HIV+

The hotel housekeeper whom IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn allegedly sodomized and attempted to rape may be HIV+ and/or have AIDS.

The IMF chief's alleged sex-assault victim lives in a Bronx apartment rented exclusively for adults with HIV or AIDS, The Post has learned.
The hotel maid, a West African immigrant, has occupied the fourth-floor High Bridge pad with her 15-year-old daughter since January -- and before that, lived in another Bronx apartment set aside by Harlem Community AIDS United strictly for adults with the virus and their families.
The Post has not been able to ascertain whether the maid, 32, has HIV/AIDS because of medical confidentiality laws.
But the agency rents apartments only for adults with the disease. A Harlem United worker said at least one adult in the household has to be HIV-positive or have AIDS to qualify for one of their units. A healthy adult with a child with HIV or AIDS is not eligible.
-NY Post

Wow.
Yesterday, Zero Hedge broke the news that DSK was being housed in NYC DoC's West Facility for inmates "with contagious diseases." While that was embarassing news at the time, it doesn't compare to this morning's bombshell, which explains why DSK is on suicide watch.

Not sure which is worse, waking up next to a dead hooker, or finding out that the woman you forcibly sodomized is most likely HIV+.
This news doesn't necessarily rule out the possibility of a setup, but it certainly squashes any argument that DSK is any kind of innocent victim here. Whatever happened in that hotel suite was likely not consensual.

DSK rape and arrest animation

So that's some Chinese cartoonists version of the story.
ABC News offers a more official version:

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn allegedly forced a New York City hotel housekeeper to perform oral sex and submit to anal sex, in addition to allegedly attempting to rape her, according to a complaint filed today by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.

The complaint charges Strauss-Kahn with two counts of criminal sexual acts in the first degree, one count of attempted rape, sexual abuse in the first degree, unlawful imprisonment, sexual abuse in the third degree and forcible touching.

The complaint says he forcibly touched the housekeeper's breasts, attempted to pull off her panty hose, twice "forcibly made contact with his penis and the informant's mouth" and that "the defendant engaged in oral sexual conduct and anal sexual conduct with another person by forcible compulsion."
-ABC News

So I stand corrected. DSK is an alleged sodomizer and attempted rapist.
He is not officially a "rich rapist" as I previously reported.