, which says that the maid was working as a prostitute, servicing hotel guests. But let’s be cautious. The information comes from a “source close to the defense investigation.” The
hasn’t uncovered any facts on its own, it’s simply reporting the story of the defense team as though it were fact. We don’t know this to be true yet.
Even if it it’s not true, this is shaping up as one of the worst cases of prosecutorial incompetence ever seen. But it was worse than incompetence that made District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. and his assistant DA’s rush forward with the case, pushing aside the doubts expressed by long-time Sex Crimes Unit chief Linda Friel about the accuser’s veracity. It was their gleeful belief that they had found the Great White Defendant.
Maid cleaning up as ‘hooker’
By LAURA ITALIANO
July 2, 2011
Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s accuser wasn’t just a girl working at a hotel—she was a working girl.
The Sofitel housekeeper who claims the former IMF boss sexually assaulted her in his room was doing double duty as a prostitute, collecting cash on the side from male guests, The Post has learned.
“There is information … of her getting extraordinary tips, if you know what I mean. And it’s not for bringing extra [deleted] towels,” a source close to the defense investigation said yesterday.
PHOTOS: DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN
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FILTHY FROGGY STILL A WART HOG: PEYSER
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ANOTHER DEBACLE FOR BLACK-EYE CY
OP-ED: VANCE BUNGLES ANOTHER ONE
The woman was allegedly purposely assigned to the Midtown hotel by her union because it knew she would bring in big bucks.
“When you’re a chambermaid at Local 6, when you first get to the US, you start at the motels at JFK [Airport]. You don’t start at the Sofitel,” the source said. “There’s a whole squad of people who saw her as an earner.”
The woman also had “a lot of her expenses—hair braiding, salon expenses—paid for by men not related to her,” the source said.
Allegations that she worked as a hotel hooker may explain why Strauss-Kahn insists their encounter was consensual. His defense attorneys refused yesterday to comment on the damning evidence—or say whether he paid her for sex.
Sources also told The Post Strauss-Kahn’s probers uncovered evidence that she was part of a pyramid scheme that targeted immigrants from her native Guinea.
“We have people who have been victimized, who have claimed she ripped them off. Nice working people from her neighborhood,” a source said.
The stunning new info surfaced yesterday as the accuser was unmasked as a pathological liar and scam artist by prosecutors whose rape case has unraveled.
Strauss-Kahn—who was under house arrest with a $5 million bond—was released without bail after the Manhattan DA’s Office admitted that the maid repeatedly lied to them about the alleged attack and her personal history.
Most damning to the case is that she flat-out lied on her asylum application that she was the “victim of a gang rape” in Guinea—memorizing a cassette tape that coached her on what to say, according to a letter prosecutors sent to the defense.
“She reiterated these falsehoods when questioned about her history and background, and stated that she did so in order to remain consistent with the statement that she had submitted as part of her application,” prosecutors said in the letter.
“Presently, the complainant states that she would that she was raped in the past in her native country but in an incident different than the one that she described during initial interviews.”
To get tax benefits, she also claimed she had a second child. She only has one, a 15-year-old daughter.
“She also admitted to misrepresenting her income in order to maintain her present housing,” the letter said.
Prosecutors said the woman lied to a grand jury by testifying she immediately alerted a supervisor about the assault.
The maid actually cleaned a neighboring suite on the 28th floor and then scrubbed Strauss-Kahn’s room before she reported the incident to her boss.
Twenty-eight hours after the alleged sexual assault, the woman talked to her boyfriend in an immigration jail in Arizona—saying “words to the effect of, ‘Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I’m doing,’ ” The New York Times quoted an official saying.
The bombshell disclosures will likely force the DA to drop all charges against the banking big shot.
“I understand that the circumstances surrounding the case have changed substantially,” Judge Michael Obus said as he ordered Strauss-Kahn’s $1 million bail and $5 million bond returned and gave permission for him to travel anywhere in the United States without restriction.
His passport was not returned.
“In the meantime, there will be no rush to judgment in this case,” said Obus, adding, “I expect the process will go on in a manner that is fair as can be.”
Strauss-Kahn, considered before his May 14 arrest to be a leading candidate for the French presidency, happily strode out of Manhattan Supreme Court holding hands with loyal wife Anne Sinclair after the brief, dramatic hearing.
“On the eve of Independence Day, we get to celebrate with Mr. Strauss-Kahn and his family a bit of personal independence,” said his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman. “This is a giant step in the right direction. The next step will lead to complete dismissal of the charges.”
Strauss-Kahn’s first taste of freedom came last night at the cozy—and pricey—Upper East Side Italian eatery Scalinatella, where he sipped red wine with his wife and a security detail at a celebratory meal that cost $700.
Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr., said that although his investigators have “raised concerns about the complaining witnesses’ credibility … today’s proceedings did not dismiss the indictment, or any of the charges.”
The maid’s lawyer, Kenneth Thompson, blasted Vance, accusing prosecutors of sabotaging their own case despite strong evidence of rape.
“Our concern is that District Attorney Vance is too afraid to try this case,” Thompson said. “We believe he’s afraid he’s going to lose this high-profile case” like he did the trials over an alleged cop rape and the Deutsche Bank Building fire.
Thompson called allegations about her call to a jailed friend—and that she had a bank account that contained $100,000 deposited by several people over two years—“a lie.”
When asked about the maid supposedly cleaning the rooms before reporting that she had been attacked, Thompson said she was very upset at the time and “did not know what to do.”
The lawyer said there was other evidence against Strauss-Kahn, including hotel security video that shows him looking “nervous” afterward with “toothpaste smeared outside of his mouth.”
Thompson admitted she lied on her asylum application but said she did so because “the victim is also a victim of female genital mutilation” and was desperate to shield her daughter from the same fate.
A spokesman for the hotel union denied it placed the victim at the Sofitel.
“These allegations are absurd,” spokesman Josh Gold said. “She never registered at our hiring hall. We never sent her for a single interview. We absolutely did not place her at the hotel and we do not track tips.”
The Lies She Told
“I cowered in fear after DSK’s attack.” She told a grand jury under oath that after she was sexually assaulted in DSK’s hotel Suite No. 2806, she fled down the hall, where she cowered until she saw him leave for the elevator. She then immediately told her supervisors of the attack, she said.
TRUTH: She eventually confessed to prosecutors that what she really did after the “attack” was clean two rooms, including Suite No. 2806. Only then did she tell hotel staff what had “happened.”
“I was gang-raped by Guinean soldiers.” DSK’s 32-year-old accuser swore in asylum paperwork that in retaliation for her family’s political opposition to Guinea’s dictatorship, she had been beaten and raped by a mob of soldiers. Prosecutors say she sobbed and “appeared distraught” as she recounted the ordeal.
TRUTH: “In subsequent interviews, she admitted that the gang rape had never occurred,” prosecutors told defense lawyers in legal documents. “Instead, she stated that she had lied about its occurrence and fabricated the details.”
“I have two children.” Prosecutors say that for the past two tax years, DSK’s accuser declared she had two children as dependents on her tax returns.
TRUTH: “She declared a friend’s child in addition to her own as a dependent on her tax returns for the purpose of increasing her tax refund beyond that to which she was entitled,” prosecutors say in court papers. She is actually the mother of only one child, a 15-year-old girl.