For over a decade now my favorite show on TV has been Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. As the promo for this New York-based show states, it is based on crime stories “ripped from the headlines”; i.e., art imitating life.
Well, in a case of life imitating art, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (aka DSK), the powerful head of the International Monetary Fund, was yanked from his first-class seat on board an Air France flight last night just as it was about to depart for Paris from JFK airport. Detectives from New York’s Special Victims Unit arrested and charged him with a criminal sex act, attempted rape, and unlawful imprisonment.
The charges stem from a complaint filed by a 32-year-old maid at the Sofitel hotel in New York City where DSK, 62, was staying. Here is what reportedly went down when she entered to clean his room (thinking it was empty) at 1 pm yesterday:
Strauss-Khan emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where he began to sexually assault her. She said she fought him off, then he dragged her into the bathroom, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear. The woman was able to break free again and escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, authorities said. They called police.
When detectives arrived moments later, Strauss-Kahn had already left the hotel, leaving behind his cellphone, Browne [spokesman for the NYPD] said. ‘It looked like he got out of there in a hurry.’
(Reuters, May 15, 2011)
No shit. Of course, as a lawyer, I’m especially obliged to note that DSK is presumed innocent. But trust me when I tell you that prosecutors will make hay out of the fact that he was caught trying to fly the coop (especially if he was not booked on this flight before his attempted rape). In legal parlance we call this evidence of his consciousness of guilt….
Furthermore, lest you think this will be just another case of “he said, she said” (where he gets the benefit of the doubt – as the men, especially rich ones like him, almost always do), DSK’s notorious reputation as a “womanizer” will seal his fate. For not since former President Bill Clinton has a public figure of this stature been dogged by so many allegations of sexual misconduct and outright assault.
Stories abound, including one about the messy affair he conducted with a Monica Lewinskyesque subordinate at the IMF in 2008. But none is more credible, as well as indicative of DSK’s pattern of behavior, than the account French journalist/author Tristane Banon gave of his attempt to rape her during an interview at his apartment in 2002:
He wanted me to hold his hand while he answered, he said ‘I can’t do it if you don’t hold my hand.’ After the hand, it was the arm, and after the arm it was a bit further, so I stopped him. …
It ended very badly, because we ended up fighting… We fought on the ground, it was more than a couple of slaps, I kicked him, he opened my bra, tried to open my jeans… It finished very badly…
I got out of there and he immediately sent me a text message saying ‘So, are you scared of me?’… I had said the word ‘rape’ when we were struggling to scare him, and it didn’t seem to scare him, as if he was used to it. After [the incident] he wouldn’t stop sending me text messages saying ‘Are you scared of me?’
(Business Insider, May 15, 2011)
More telling, from this same Business Insider report, is this:
Thierry Ardisson, the host of the show where Banon first made her allegations, later commented: ‘Everyone knew. I have fourteen female friends who told me ‘He tried it with me.’… I think this guy is sick… He needs to go to rehab.’
In fact, the first thought that came to mind when I read the police report on how DSK pounced on that poor, unsuspecting maid was that this can’t be the first time he has done something like this. Alas, he has gotten away with it for so many years because his victims were probably more often than not French women like Banon who – for cultural or professional reasons – calculated that they had far more to lose by reporting him than women like this maid (a black woman from the West African nation of Guinea) who clearly had no such conflict.
For what it’s worth, his long-suffering (and, I suspect, all-knowing) wife is standing by her man. She’s his third….
Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is probably just as gratified as DSK’s silent victims by this arrest. After all, the consensus opinion among political pundits in France was that he was the only person who could deny Sarkozy’s bid to get reelected next year.
Frankly, no matter the disposition of his case, DSK is finished – not just as a candidate for the French presidency, but also as head of the IMF. Suggestions that he will be granted leniency by the court or (continued) indulgence by the IMF because of “the pivotal role” he was playing in dealing with the European financial crisis are plainly absurd. The man is hardly that indispensable.
In point of fact, it must be dawning on him just how fleeting his power and influence are now that he’s being made to cool his heels in jail up in Harlem pending arraignment. And it would not surprise me if the IMF – which issued a statement today saying that all is “fully functioning and operational” – announces his suspension (or resignation) by the end of business tomorrow.
More important, though, his reputation as a serial sexual aggressor makes the maid’s complaint extremely credible. And since his character will be the central issue in this case, DSK’s lawyers will probably prevail upon him to cop a plea for a much-reduced sentence than the 25 years he’s facing. But they won’t have much leverage in plea negotiations if he squirted incriminating DNA anywhere on his victim’s body or clothes during his sexual assault … (sorry). If this case goes to trial, however, he’s toast….
That said, I guarantee that the episode featuring this alleged crime will be the highlight of the next season of Law & Order. And, take it from me, knowing the facts and circumstances involved will not diminish its entertainment value in the least.
* This commentary was published originally yesterday, Sunday, at 3:23 pm.