Geraldine Baum of the Los Angeles Times is reporting that in a week, Dominique Strauss-Kahn could be a free man. New York prosecutors are expected to tell a Manhattan judge next Tuesday whether they want to proceed with a criminal trial against the 62-year-old French financier accused of trying to rape a housekeeper in his Manhattan hotel suite in May.
The prosecutors have been evaluating whether to drop the charges since discovering that his accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, misled them about her background and certain facts of the incident. Most troubling apparently was the tearful account she gave government investigators — which she later recanted — of how she was gang-raped in her native Guinea.
This and other inconsistencies in Diallo's claims could make it tricky for prosecutors to prove to a jury that she was telling the truth when she reported to them and hotel employees that the former head of the International Monetary Fund attacked her.
As the hearing approaches, advocates for both Diallo and Strauss-Kahn have been previewing their versions of events in the media and elsewhere. DSK's camp claims he paid her to have sex and then she got mad when he refused to pay. Diallou's camp says he viciously attacked and raped her.
Is this really a surprise? Since the media smear campaign against Diallo shortly after DSK's arrest began, it is a foregone conclusion that this would happen. We could imagine that this would happen even before the smear campaign, if you think of the power dynamics at play.
As for Diallo being a prostitute, isn't that the equivalent of "blame a black man" if you want to get off for a crime you are alleged to have committed? That comes from the same ideology that "All black and brown women are whores," right? If Diallo was proved to be a prostitute, does that mean she cannot be raped?
Whatever the case, pun intended, this whole case doesn't seem to be about the facts or justice; it seems to be about perceptions. That's too bad for both involved, who deserve to have their day in court — ironically for both of them to prove their innocence.
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.
In other news: Boris Kodjoe Checks Black Women on Health Issues.