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As Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, spent his first full day on Rikers Island, the hotel housekeeper who accused him of sexual assault is struggling with what her lawyer says is a life upended by the case.
The woman, 32, a widowed immigrant from Guinea who was granted asylum seven years ago, has not been publicly identified and has made no public statements about what prosecutors have charged was an attack by the 62-year-old Frenchman as she prepared to clean his hotel room on Saturday.
But her lawyer said she had been unable to return to her job at the Sofitel New York or her home, as both have attracted swarms of international media.
And as she remains in seclusion, there were suggestions that Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a powerful, wealthy politician who was widely regarded as a strong candidate to run against the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, next year, will put forward a defense that any sex was consensual.
During a hearing on Monday in Criminal Court in Manhattan, a lawyer for Mr. Strauss-Kahn, Benjamin Brafman, told a judge that he believed the “forensic evidence” was “not consistent with forcible encounter.”
Mr. Brafman did not disclose what “forensic evidence” he was referring to, or even if he had been apprised about what forensic evidence the prosecution had collected. Even so, that statement seemed to suggest that the defense may acknowledge that a sexual encounter did occur.
Indeed, on Tuesday, a person briefed on the case said the defense believed that any sex act may have been consensual.
That elicited an angry response from the lawyer for the woman. He dismissed any suggestion that the housekeeper, whom he described as “a very proper, dignified young woman,” had agreed to have sex with Mr. Strauss-Kahn.
“There is no question this was not consensual — she was assaulted and she had to escape from him, which is why when she finally got out of the room she reported it to security immediately,” said the lawyer, Jeffrey J. Shapiro. “It doesn’t matter what Mr. Brafman says and it doesn’t matter what the defendant says. Her story is her story, which she has told to everyone who asked her and she is telling the truth. She has no agenda.”
Mr. Shapiro said his client “did not even know who this guy was” until she saw news accounts of the attack, adding, “She is a simple housekeeper who was going into a room to clean a room.”
A man who said he was the victim’s brother said that his sister did not know of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s identity when she reported the incident to the hotel and, later, to police. The man, who manages a restaurant in Harlem, said that she did not learn of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s significance until pictures of him appeared in the news.
He said he had called his sister several times on Saturday afternoon, but she did not answer the phone. She eventually called him back from a police station, he said.
“She just told me that something really bad had happened and that she was with the police and the doctors,” he said.
The woman, who does not have a formal education, emigrated from Guinea with her daughter, leaving that country under what Mr. Shapiro said he understood were “difficult circumstances.” The lawyer said she sought and was granted asylum in the United States, although he said he was unsure of her precise immigration status.
The woman, who speaks French and some English, is a widow, though the lawyer said he was unaware of the timing or circumstances of her husband’s death.
Mr. Shapiro said his client was very proud of her job, which she has held for three years, and the ability it gave her to support herself as a single mother with a 15-year-old daughter.
“She would have done nothing to jeopardize this job, she needs this job, this job was her lifeline,” he said. “She is not a woman of resources, she is not a woman of pretense. She is just a simple woman who is grateful to have a job where she can provide food and shelter for herself and her daughter.”
His client, he said, has enormous pride, and is unsure what her life will be like going forward.
“The fact of the matter is this is a situation that she didn’t choose, she’s been victimized not only by what happened in that hotel room but by the fact that her life has been taken away from her for who knows how long,” he said.
No lawsuit, he said, had been considered or discussed.
The case, Mr. Shapiro added, has turned the woman’s life upside down; she has been isolated from her life and her routines. Meanwhile, at Rikers, Mr. Strauss-Kahn was placed on suicide watch, according to a law enforcement official. The official said the action, which will place him under closer supervision, was taken as a result of his intake evaluation, which is based on the nature of his crime, whether he has ever been in jail before and other factors, rather than any gesture or attempt.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s defense team is quite likely to be back in Criminal Court on Friday, when a grand jury is expected to hand up an indictment against Mr. Strauss-Kahn. If an indictment is not issued against Mr. Strauss-Kahn during this week, he would be eligible for immediate release.
A Criminal Court judge, Melissa C. Jackson, has already refused to grant Mr. Strauss-Kahn bail, although his defense team is free to seek bail from a higher-ranking judge sitting in state Supreme Court. It is unclear if Mr. Strauss-Kahn will quickly try again for a bail package, or wait for further developments before presenting his arguments again on that point.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who is being held in protective custody, had one visitor on Tuesday; city Department of Correction officials would not disclose who that was.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn was served a breakfast of wheat cereal, whole wheat bread, fresh fruit and a beverage. For lunch, he was given vegetarian chili with rice, green beans, a carrot and celery salad, bread and a beverage. Veal patties and noodles were on the dinner menu.
NYT
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