Dominique Strauss-Kahn has to return to America to face a civil suit lodged by hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo. Her allegations of attempted rape collapsed last year but the new hearing on March 15 will allow her another chance to plead her case against him. Criminal and civil laws are different. Criminal law has to prove that a party is guilty ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ but Civil law is determined on the basis of probability.
The OJ Simpson case is a good example of the difference between criminal and civil law. Simpson was found ‘not guilty’ of killing Ronald Lyle Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson and his trial made the American justice system a laughing stock.
But the law wasn’t finished with him. A civil suit was filed by the Goldman and Brown families and because Simpson couldn’t use the 5th Amendment, and unlike the criminal case, he was forced to testify. The jury awarded $8.5 million in compensation to Fred Goldman and his ex-wife Sharon Rufo for the loss of their son’s love, companionship and moral support and a few days later, punitive damages of $25 million were handed down to be shared between Nicole’s children and Fred Goldman..
Although Struss-Kahn admitted that he was involved in a sex act with the maid in his room last year, he insists she was a willing participant. And although a semen sample on the maid’s shirt matched Strauss-Kahn’s DNA sample, the case collapsed because of the credibility of the alleged victim. His defence team were the best that money could buy and it wasn’t a surprise when he won the case and was free to fly back to Paris.
This time around, one of his lawyers, William Taylor will submit a defence of ‘diplomatic immunity’ based on a UN convention covering “acts committed in a personal community”, whatever that means. One can only hope that the maid's lawyers will do a much better job than they did last time.
But it's not known if Strauss-Kahn will attend the hearing in person because he’s in trouble at home. He is facing charges of ‘complicity in pimping’ and ‘misuse of corporate assets’ in relation to a prostitute network of orgies at the upmarket Carlton Hotel in Lille, France. He admits attending many of these orgies but says he didn’t know the girls were prostitutes because they were ‘all naked at the time’ and were introduced to him by senior police officers.
In France, it’s against the law to assist a prostitute in her work and a woman has come forward and told police that while IMF chief, he tried to get her a visa so she could stay in the USA. He rejects being involved in pimping or corruption and after being interviewed by police for nearly 32 hours, he was released and whisked away under police escort.
Two weallthy businessmen have already been charged in the French prostitution case, Fabrice Paszkowski and David Roquet. Eight people are facing trial over the Carlton hotel affair including three executives from the luxury hotel, a leading lawyer and a police chief.
A lawyer himself and also a professor of economics, DSK is no fool and has powerful friends. He became Managing Director of the IMF in 2007 with the backing of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Born into a well-to-do family, his father was also a lawyer and his mother a Jewish journalist.
Strauss-Kahn boasts that he has been to many orgies over the years and has an ‘uninhibited sex life’ but has never once paid a cent for sex.
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