The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. filed papers in the Manhattan Supreme Court today requesting that all charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn be dropped. Simultaneously, the lawyer for Nafissatou Diallo, who accused the former IMF head of sexual assault, met with the prosecutors office to learn about the (expected) fate of the case. “The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, has denied the right of a woman to get justice in a rape case,” Diallo’s lawyer Kenneth Thompson said this afternoon. “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.” Thompson requested that Vance be removed from the case, but the motion is “unlikely to succeed,” the New York Times reports.
The D.A.’s motion to dismiss on recommendation cites Diallo’s once “unwavering” account, which was undermined by questions regarding her personal life, including her asylum application and relationship with a man currently in jail on drug charges. The accuser “has not been truthful on matters great and small,” the prosecution stated. “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.”
Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers said in a statement, “We have maintained from the beginning of this case that our client is innocent. We also maintained that there were many reasons to believe that Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s accuser was not credible … We look forward to attending the hearing on Tuesday.”
Prosecutor Asks Court to Drop Charges Against Strauss-Kahn [City Room/NYT]
Housekeeper’s Lawyer Asks to Remove District Attorney From Case [NYT]
