DSK maid is out to clean up
$uit filed as criminal case wavers
Last Updated: 9:42 AM, August 9, 2011
Posted: 12:37 AM, August 9, 2011
PrintShe wants to clean out his monetary fund.
As the criminal case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn stands on the verge of collapse, the hotel maid who accused the former IMF chief of sexually assaulting her filed a civil suit against the Frenchman yesterday, calling the incident a "violent and sadistic attack."
Right after the alleged May 14 assault, the French presidential hopeful left his Midtown hotel room in such a hurry that he still had "toothpaste smeared on the outside of his mouth and was looking over his shoulders," according to the Bronx Supreme Court suit.
REUTERS
FIGHTING BACK: Nafissatou Diallo yesterday filed a civil lawsuit in The Bronx over the alleged sexual assault against her in May.
The maid, Nafissatou Diallo, entered Room 2806 at the Sofitel hotel, believing it was empty, but encountered a nude Strauss-Kahn who "charged at [her]," according to the suit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages.
The powerful pol then allegedly forced her to perform oral sex in the $3,000-a-night suite.
The suit says that Strauss-Kahn "intentionally, brutally and violently sexually assaulted Ms. Diallo and in the process humiliated, degraded, violated and robbed Ms. Diallo of her dignity as a woman."
Diallo suffered bruising to her groin as DSK tore her pantyhose, the suit alleges.
The maid, whose shoulder was also injured, reported the attack to her supervisor and other employees, who said she was "shaking" and "kept spitting, repeatedly [making] gestures as if she wanted to throw up and was emotionally distraught," according to the suit.
DSK was arrested hours later aboard a France-bound jet at Kennedy Airport.
But the prosecution began to falter when the Manhattan DA's Office discovered inconsistencies in Diallo's account and her past deceit.
Perhaps most damning was that Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea, lied on her asylum application when she said she was gang-raped.
And the 32-year-old Bronx resident's media tour last month further damaged the criminal case by raising other inconsistencies.
For example, Diallo told Newsweek that after the alleged assault, she went to another room to collect her cleaning supplies and then returned to DSK's room to try to clean it.
But earlier, Diallo had told the grand jury that she fled down a hallway and waited until DSK was gone before alerting her boss.
Her filing the civil suit likely gives DSK's high-powered criminal defense team additional ammunition to question Diallo's motive for accusing the wealthy world banker.
Sources have said that Diallo, a day after the alleged attack, told an accused drug trafficker she knows, "Don't worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I'm doing."
Prosecutors typically advise complainants in ongoing criminal cases not to file a civil suit, unless they have to because of a statute-of-limitations deadline, because of the problems it presents at trial.
Lawyers for Strauss-Kahn said the civil suit has no merit and their client will fight it vigorously.
"We have maintained from the beginning that the motivation of [Diallo's lawyer Kenneth] Thompson and his client was to make money," DSK attorneys William Taylor and Benjamin Brafman said in a statement. "The filing of this lawsuit ends any doubt on that question."
The DA's office declined comment on the civil suit.
The suit also says that at trial, Diallo will mention other women who DSK has allegedly sexually assaulted.
A French journalist, Tristane Banon, said DSK tried to rape her when she interviewed him in 2003. She filed charges against him after he was arrested in New York.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/dsk_maid_is_out_to_clean_up_QOapw2VRDSuFAnXMRBTX0J#ixzz1UXw1w1tq
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