One of our best and most freedom-loving American rules says that rape is only a crime when it happens to good people. And since it apparently turns out that the hotel housekeeper who accused noted sleazeball Dominique Strauss-Kahn of raping her is one of the Bad People, a judge freed the former IMF chief from house arrest without bail today. “She hangs out with drug dealers” was the reasoning, or whatever it is that makes poor immigrants horrible monsters worthy of the abuse of the powerful.
From Politico:
[Prosecutors] also found disturbing ties linking [the accuser] to people involved in drug dealing and money laundering. Within a day of the alleged assault, she had a phone conversation — which was recorded — with a prisoner and discussed the possible benefits of pursuing charges against Strauss-Kahn. The man had been arrested on charges of possessing 400 pounds of marijuana and is one of a number of people who have made cash deposits totaling $100,000 into the woman’s bank account in the past few years.
The woman still insists that she was assaulted by Strauss-Kahn and her lawyer told the AP that she is prepared to testify despite a “smear campaign” against her.
Le Monde also put together this compendium of New York Post headlines about the story, which includes such wonders as “Booty Gaul,” “French Whine,” “Frog Legs It,” and “Chez Perv.” Click on it and go pretend you read French. [Politico/ Le Monde]
{ 119 comments }
Broadway was closer.
Or Trump Tower. The place is full of dicks and would take forever to find his.
I'm sure the average French penis is much larger. It would be like finding a sausage in a room full of snausages.
Broadway will do; plenty of corn there.
And once again, The Talented Mr. Rapely narrowly escapes justice.
And really, it's not surprising considering his uncanny ability to transform from Matt Damon to John Malkovich
If only Philip Seymour Hoffman had gone directly to the police instead of becoming a mincing, duplicitous true-crime novelist!
Silly brown lady!
She should have arranged an impeccable resume in advance of getting raped.
And a different skin color.
~
By mistake, I pressed downfist you instead of upfist.
That's OK, I upfisted thunder on purpose, just because I knew you were going to do that.
No problem, I've made the same mistake meself.
They're too damned close together!
~
Downsydrome McFistula is going to give a seminar – he'll share his downfisting tricks and tips.
I for one am relieved to know that that pot dealer is locked away from society.
If only he had been rich, he wouldn't be in jail and he wouldn't have to pay taxes on all that pot.
Justice in America: It's not rape if the victim has done bad things in the past.
Yup. I mean, she may as well have raped herself. What a horrible person she is. I hope DSK is feeling OK, the poor guy. What an ordeal.
The rapist, on the other hand, isn't held to any sort of judgment on his past deeds. Of course, it's really all a matter of scale – knowing a criminal is bad, commiting crimes against humanity is ok.
America – "One strike and you're out! Don't fuck up."
if only this poor imigrant was hanging with the country club crowd it would have counted. maybe in a couple generations her granddaughter can get raped and have the charges stick.
The promise of America!!!!!! Makes me proud.
I heard the lady has AIDS. Let us hope that it rubbed off.
If it plays out this way and this asshole walks because of a victim smear, which would be fucking repugnant, let us hope that if he rapes again, he picks a victim who says no thanks to the halls of justice and seeks an out-of court "settlement" via the sort of mediator type who operates underneath the radar.
The type who's going to give the job to Clemenza.
Good thing that knowing the wrong people makes you guilty. I guess I'd better not ever get ass raped – or at least I better prepared to enjoy it. Oh wait, I've been getting Koched for the past four years….must be some small Koch being as I'm not even sore.
Does posting to teh Wonk-et signify "knowing the wrong people"?
…ulp…
If the rich cannot rape the lower classes, this country has truly become the Socialist Caliphate that the right has been warning us about all along.
$100K? DSK's IMF peeps have been ripping off entire countries for significantly bigger sums of money. Who has the credibility problem again?
Yeah, the IMF has has problems with sexism going back since its inception. Knowing a pot dealer does not tend to up your chance of crying rape.
Sorry, but you lose all your rights as a human being if you are accused of knowing anyone that knows anything about marijuana.
I'm astounded. From the beginning, I naturally assumed that an immigrant minority hotel maid would triumph over a powerful, rich, and extraordinarily well-connected white guy.
We gotta stop this Iraq/Afghanistan/Libya stuff. We need the Predator drones at home.
Um, no. With our track record, we'll wipe out the entire minority population of NY and leave Trump and the rest of the dicks safe to plunder, loot, and pillage the rest of the population to their hearts' content. Not that the minority population ever constituted an impediment before, but.
So, if a poor brown immigrant raped a rich French lady…the poor brown immigrant wouldn't get released from Penthouse-arrest? Ok, I get this whole criminal justice thing.
Hahaha, "house arrest" for a poor, that's a good one.
Hey, so what if it's the *Big* House. A house is a house, right?
If you are homeless they won't release you. People can spend 6 months in jail waiting for trial in this country since the federal court system is deprived of so many judges.
The only way the injustices of poor DSK's house arrest and smears against his good name can be rectified is with tax cuts and an apology to Sarah Palin. Mr. President, we demand nothing less!
As I said before, a rich rapist will never get convicted unless they are total idiots like Mike Tyson and basically admit guilt on the stand. From the beginning I figured Strauss-Kahn would find a way to smear the victim and join the likes of William Kennedy-Smith, Kobe Bryant and Ben Roethlissberger in going free.
Don't forget Joe Scarborough who killed a young intern in his office.
Cause of death: Blunt force impact on head, according to the Coroner's report…
I think its our justice system that has a credibility issue.
Unfortunately, I think you have a valid point.
So how many detectives did DSK have looking into this woman's background and acquaintances? And how quickly did they fax their findings to the DA?
Looking into her background? I think they took up residence in her colon.
It was the other way around. The information was provided by the DA to the defense. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/01/us-stra...
All of them, Katie. *sigh*
His investigative dream team: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/05/int...
I probably shouldn’t go down this road but here goes. There are a few more issues than just the associations of this victim. I have tried to ignore the coverage of this thing so facts didn’t negatively affect my ability to snark but NPR was all over it this morning. If he did it I hope he spends the rest of his life in jail but until that verdict is rendered I am going to leave it to the system (God help me).
It's going to be difficult to determine anything at this point, since the evidence is consistent with either her rape story or his consensual act story — what it comes down to is whether there's enough to convince a jury, and at this point there might not be. Of course, maybe prosecutors should think before they publicly declare the evidence to be overwhelming, but curbing that sort of zeal and instead focusing on the facts might result in hordes of innocent people being let out onto the streets.
It always comes down to he-said, she-said. Put Mr. Elegant French Gentleman on the stand, vs. Miss Drug Dealer's GF, and what's a jury gonna do with it? Even a jury of 12 drug dealers would let him walk. Heck, a jury of 12 drug dealers' girlfriends would let him walk (after 20 minutes' cackling about the plausibility of a 'forced BJ'.)
"Hard-working church-going clean-living immigrant mom" would have had a fighting chance, and that's what everyone was really hoping for here. Too bad we didn't get it: French/Rich V. US/Poor could have been the trial of the century.
BTW, any prosecutor who tells the press he's got "overwhelming evidence" in a rape case ought to be fired for stupidity and/or incompetence.
I'm of like mind…I got the impression that there were inconsistencies in her story that were problematic, not just her associations.
Meanwhile I have instructed Mr. PsycWench to avoid sexytime with hotel maids.
Sage advice, we all should have as wise a spouse to guide us.
There were inconsistencies with her story according to the article I read last night. Then the prosecution, not the defense, found the lies on the asylum paperwork, connections to shady people, etc. after initially telling the press what a solid witness she was. The whole thing kind of smacks of either the prosecution going off half-cocked or screwing up and either way, the same outcome is likely.
I begin with a great mistrust of prosecutors. The prosecutor in the trial I witnessed was an absolute asshole who was a golfing buddy of the judge. He skewered the truth like a Fox News host, and even though his actions ruined lives, his only interest was another notch in his gavel.
You know who else gets away with raping poor brownz?
Joe Scarborough?
America, ever since Whitey McWhiteperson moved in?
~
Adolph…
…Caesar in "The Color Purple?"
Anybody with an AK-47 in Central Africa?
Halliburton?
Dahmer? For awhile, anyway…
I was going to say "Hitler," and then I remembered that "Mephisto" was only a movie. Sigh. I haz a sad.
Cortez?
Of course she was a bad lady deserving of a little rapey. She was walking around the hotel in one of those hot little maid uniforms. Those little outfits are just begging for it.
Perhaps maid uniforms should be a theme for slutwalkDC.
Bad stuff only happens to bad people, dontcha know? Like brownz and poorz and womenz….because they deserve it.
Wait, bad stuff is happening to jet owners, too! There must be a flaw in my logic. I know, it's the brownz, poorz, and/or womenz' fault. /fixed
And she had the triple whammy of all 3: poor, brown, woman.
No way will a wealthy European politician lose here..
Like the trifecta of being fucked. And getting fucked nonconsensually, as the case may be.
a “smear campaign” against her.
Yes- a pap smear campaign!
"Don't forget Glenn Beck, who has never denied raping a killing a girl."
I love it how libunatics stick to facts and never engage in fanciful misrepresentation.
You mean like how the founding fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery and Paul Revere warned the British that Americans had guns?
Find me somewhere where he has denied it. When you don't, I'll show you the definition of Irony in the dictionary.
"she had a phone conversation — which was recorded — with a prisoner and discussed the possible benefits of pursuing charges against Strauss-Kahn."
Well there are SO FRICKING MANY drawbacks to pressing charges even for white, well-off women (unless you're Bristol Palin, of course), even without her being a poor immigrant. Of COURSE she'd have a phone conversation about whether the benefits of pursuing charges outweigh the numerous disadvantages. Every woman who's been raped has this conversation at some point – IF she even considers pressing charges instead of just dismissing it outright (which is a big if).
Except, of course, for fake-rape "victim" and whiner extroadinaire Bristol Palin. Uggggg. I need a drink.
I'm really surprised Levi Johnston hasn't lawyered up and sued her over that.
He already put his dick in crazy, I don't think he wants to get fucked by crazy.
Pretending to read French? Who's pretending?
leave her quack out of this!
Wonder if he ever played lacrosse at Duke.
She should have waited to do this rape-claim-thing when there was a black head of the IMF.
Oh wait…
KAAAAHN!!
Seriously, DSK is lucky to be in protective police custody after messing with a drug kingpin's girl.
I still need to know what was she wearing.
Come on guys, for all we know, she could have been wearing one of them sexy maid costumes. In which case, she would have been Asking For It.
The maid uniform automatically cancels her rights. They'll remember that before this is over.
the french are NEVER going to shut up about this.
Or Jerry Lewis.
Meh, just ask them how many French soldiers it takes to defend Paris. That shuts them up.
I am sure there is a totally ludicrous explanation of why Strauss-Kahn's semen was found in the maid's vagina.
And his $700-an-hour lawyers are the only ones with the ability to figure it out!
700 dollar an hour, lol, the team probably costs 100k a day. He is spending at least a house on this a day, because that is what socialists do right?
And this is why the prosecution needs to not take shortcuts or try to showboat instead of doing their jobs.
I hadn't read that she was Ecuadoran.
Guinea is what I've read.
Her lawyer is now trying this thing on the sidewalk for reporters. If you enjoy jurisprudence it's time to not look at a TV for the rest of the summer.
The flipside of trying it in the court of the public is this has significantly changed the code of silence in France and the Europe on the issue of powerful men getting to be sexy time assholes. It's already been valuable on that front, no matter what else happens.
This is good news for Marianne Lepin.
I'm more of an "innocent until proven guilty" liberal than a "rape accusers never lie" liberal, so I accept DSK skating as the price we pay for a high burden of proof, even though he probably raped her. Probably just ain't good enough.
But Le Monde? Fuck you, I'm with the Post on this one. If randomly accused nobodies get their mug shots all over the paper for merely being arrested, there's no reason VIPs shouldn't be treated the same way (actually no one, great or small, should have their picture, or even their name, in the paper until they are convicted, but like that standard is ever going to fly).
If DSK had never touched the accuser he should still have his head chopped off for the crimes of the IMF which have led to the unnecessary early deaths of millions in Africa and Central America.
Rape is a common tactic of war now.
I smelled a rat on this deal from the start. 1- A faction in French Politics would certainly benefit from having Kahn smeared, even though voters tend to be forgiving of sex capers in that Country. 2- I was astounded that this VIP was arrested so quickly apparently on a he-said, she-said allegation which did not involve kidnapping, false imprisonment, use of a weapon or great bodily harm. I know I'm going to catch some flak from the wimmenfolk here, but like it or not, all too often allegations like this are treated as "assaults with a friendly weapon". I suspect some hi-jinx here. Kahn is obviously an asshole and should prolly be in prison for a million good reasons, but I'm wanting to see which way these worms crawl now that they are out of the can.
I've been saying that from the start. Just because he's a rich, old, white perv doesn't make him a rapist, although the chances are very high that he did rape her. Unfortunately, "chance" ain't enough for a conviction. And a poor working woman might take a nice sweet payoff to set up some pig like DSK. He might deserve a lot worse than just jail for his IMF gig and the way he treats women in general, but those are not crimes, and we have to conform to our own damn standards in that respect. Jailing someone for being a prick is still not legally possible, or G.W. and his Dad and all their friends would have been rotting inside for decades.
Couldn't have put it better myself!
I guess the thing is, I don't know what happened in that hotel and I'll never get to see the unfiltered evidence…do I believe this guy is probably a misogynist asshole, yeah; do I recognize that chicks use sex (and allegations of the unwanted variety) as a weapon, absolutely. And it disgusts me, because every allegation that turns out to be false undermines a real victim's credibility by default. Especially in a situation like this where the alleged victim is going to be scrutinized because of the possibility of financial or other person gain as a motivation. That said, much like even the paranoid have enemies, even those of allegedly unsavory character can be victims of crime. Revelations of shady aquaintainces do not constitute prima facie evidence to support rescission of previously imposed restrictions (and, really, Penthouse-arrest, c'mon) that were presumably imposed after thoughtful consideration (here, I also concede that I probably don't actually have all the details of the evidence precipitating his release). I know, I'm living in a land of unicorns and lollipops to think all the evidence should be amassed and a fair day in court be had.
You really think that plotters would have known how the NYPD would react? That seems like a stretch.
If one can get a NYPD Captain in one's pocket (expensive, but not unheard of) one can guarantee how the Detectives in his Precinct will react.
See, this is why Asian mothers encourage their daughters to keep ducks.
Srsly.
G.H.W. and Ollie North.
Fuck you MSM, I was totally under the impression for an entire fucking day that the woman had a history of false accusation. Goddammit. Want to move to Sweden NAOW.
Jesus Fucking Christ…is it possible to be shocked but not surprised?!
Attack, undermine, accuse the victim.
A high-price lawyer's ace-in-the-hole.
Shit, just another perpetration by the colored woman, tryin' to keep the white rapy brother down. Happens alla time in my 'hood. That would be the 16th arrondisement, bitches.
Yes, of course, every time I stay in a super-fancy-pants New York City hotel, I suggest the staff enterting the room put on "the garment." You know what I mean, Mittens.
It's no use, Mini. Mittens ain't never gonna show you his Magic Underpantalones.
Novel! I generally clean in old sweats or similar. It'd be fine with me if hotel staff wore this type of "uniform." Then again, I'm not a rapey asshole. A plain old asshole, sure, but not a rapey one.
Old sweats, preferably flavoured with old sweat, seems to be pretty much how actual cleaning cleaners roll.
Had Vance not made a media circus out of this from the start, the case could have proceeded more justly. That perp walk on day 1 was, to much of the world, a correct assessment of something wrong with the current American system.
Innocent until proven French.
He should have been left alone to return to France and tried in absentia?
Not sure what alternative you expected/hoped for?
She has connections to Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Wachovia?
Realtors, actually. (Been reading mortgage fraud cases.)
So, now we move on to Chapitre Deux
Undoubtedly, Drudge's hate voles are hard at work burrowing for evidence that the assaultee failed to pay a parking ticket in 1983 or drank imported wine just that once.
Smear on, hate voles, smear on.
Clearly consensual: he ees soooo sexy, soooo magnifiique. Once the towel dropped, she melted into hees arms.
Obviously, thees means he loves the womens.
"Innocent until proven guilty" doesn't apply to the rich.
DSK and Casey Anthony would have made great cellmates.
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