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