10/05/2012 - Myclipp

The New York Times/ - Politics, Ter, 15 de Maio de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)
Strauss-Kahn Countersues Hotel
Housekeeper
Dominique Strauss-Kahn has filed a countersuit
against a housekeeper at a Midtown Manhattan hotel
who accused him last year of rape, saying her
statements about him had damaged his political
career.In the lawsuit, which asks for an award of $1
million, Mr. Strauss-Kahn characterized the claims by
the hotel employee, Nafissatou Diallo, as baseless
accusations that had cost him his job as managing
director of the International Monetary Fund and “other
professional opportunities.” Many political observers in
France thought last year that Mr. Strauss-Kahn was
best equipped to run as the Socialist Party candidate
against the incumbent president, Nicolas Sarkozy. But
that perception changed last May after Ms. Diallo
accused Mr. Strauss-Kahn of rape. He was arrested at
Kennedy International Airport, indicted by a grand jury
and photographed coming in and out of court by a
horde of photographers. The Socialist nomination
ended up going to François Hollande, who defeated
Mr. Sarkozy last week and was sworn in on Tuesday.
After problems emerged with Ms. Diallo’s credibility,
the Manhattan district attorney’s office asked a judge
to dismiss the charges against Mr. Strauss-Kahn. But a
civil suit filed by Ms. Diallo against Mr. Strauss-Kahn in
State Supreme Court in the Bronx still stands. On
Monday, Mr. Strauss-Kahn filed a reply and
counterclaim accusing her of “knowingly and
intentionally making a false report to law enforcement
authorities.” The countersuit was reported on Tuesday
by The New York Post. One of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s
lawyers, William W. Taylor III, said in an e-mail on
Tuesday that Ms. Diallo was “directly responsible for
his being arrested, imprisoned and subjected to
extraordinary pain, anguish and expense.” Kenneth
Thompson, a lawyer for Ms. Diallo countered,
“Strauss-Kahn’s lawsuit is yet another publicity stunt,
smacks of desperation and will be easily defeated.” In
his court filing, Mr. Strauss-Kahn said that the two had
engaged in consensual sex and that she had later
tarnished his professional and personal reputation.
After being arrested, Mr. Strauss-Kahn was subjected
to a “degrading and humiliating strip search,”
photographed naked and “paraded in front of the
international media in handcuffs as part of a ‘perp
walk’ intended to humiliate him,” the filing said. In
recent months Mr. Strauss-Kahn has been charged in
France with involvement in a prostitution ring and
accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a hotel in
Washington in 2010. He has denied wrongdoing.
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