Vance pushed aside every competent party that might have expeditiously uncovered the maid’s lies

As we learn from today’s New York Post, it wasn’t just Sex Crimes Unit chief Lisa Friel who, because of her doubts about the maid’s veracity, dismissed in the early stages of the DSK case, but detectives whose specialty is interrogating victims:

In New York, meanwhile, criticism mounted against Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. for his alleged mishandling of the case.

Cops could have figured out Strauss-Kahn’s accuser was crying wolf earlier if Vance’s office hadn’t sidelined savvy detectives in favor of less-experienced investigators from his own office, sources told The Post.

“Special Victims Unit cops were frozen out of talking to the witness almost from day one,” a law-enforcement source said yesterday. “They never had a chance to vet the victim properly.”

It’s a long-standing tradition that SVU cops and the DA’s sex-crime unit work together investigating sex attacks—but that didn’t happen in this case.

“Lisa [Friel] was given no say in the running of the investigation,” the source said of the assistant DA who heads the office’s sex-crimes unit. She is voluntarily stepping down on September 1 to pursue other career options.

Frustrated SVU cops had only two cracks at the 32-year-old maid, who accused the ex-International Monetary Fund chief of forcing her to perform oral sex in his suite at the posh Sofitel hotel in midtown.

The first was at the hospital after she reported the attack—one of the worst places to interview victims because the priority there is to get medical treatment, the source said.

The second was at their East Harlem headquarters where she picked Strauss-Kahn, 62, out of a lineup days after his May 14 arrest.

Though charges were not dropped, Strauss-Kahn was freed from house arrest Friday and resumed a semblance of a normal life—visiting a museum with wife Anne Sinclair, 62, and dining with friends. Sinclair yesterday left the $50,000-a-month home they’ve rented about 3:35 p.m., while Strauss-Kahn remained inside.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 04, 2011 12:57 PM | Send