What Strauss-Kahn Needs to Learn About Consensual Behavior
Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The former IMF chief formally resigned his post as head of the agency overnight while he remains imprisoned at Riker Island in New York.
The news overnight that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, currently detained in New York on suspicion of sexual assault, submitted his resignation as chief of the International Monetary Fund, opens two very different discussions--the future of the IMF, and the future of Strauss-Kahn.
While Strauss-Kahn is on suicide watch in an 11 x 13 cell at Rikers Island in the East River, his attorney is preparing to return to court today to once again request that he be released on bail. Meanwhile, Strauss-Kahn's accuser, a maid at the Sofitel Hotel in New York, testified in front of a grand jury yesterday.
We have learned that the hotel maid is a 32-year-old Muslim immigrant from Guinea, widowed with a 15-year-old daughter, who lives in housing in the Bronx which some suggest is allocated to tenants who are HIV-positive (although the maid herself is said not to be positive for HIV). We have also learned that according to electronic records made by the key cards to the hotel, she was only in the room about fifteen minutes. Strauss-Kahn was arrested some time later on board a departing Air France flight to Paris, having left behind his cell phone.
The Telegraph is reporting that Kristin Davis, the woman known as the "Manhattan Madam" who also provided services to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, claims Strauss-Kahn was a client of her agency and that she provided prostitutes for him in the past who complained that he was "rough" with them.
With Strauss-Kahn's attorney, Benjamin Brafman, arguing that the charges against his client are "very defensible," that defense is focusing on the claim of consensual sexual conduct.
It's instructive to look at the definition of sex offense under New York state penal law:
SEXUAL MISCONDUCT (Class A Misdemeanor) - Up to 1 year in prison
Sexual misconduct has occurred when:
*a male engages in sexual intercourse with a female without her consent
*a person engages in deviate sexual intercourse with another person without the latter's consent; or
*a person engages in sexual conduct with an animal or with a dead human body
RAPE IN THE THIRD DEGREE (Class E Felony) - Up to 4 years in prison
*A person engages in sexual intercourse with another person to whom the actor is not married who is incapable of consent by reason of some factor other than being less than 17 years old;
OR
*Being 21 years old or more, he or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person to whom the actor is not married and who is less than 17 years old.
RAPE IN THE SECOND DEGREE (Class D Felony) - Up to 7 years in prison
Rape in the Second Degree has occurred when:
*A person being 18 years or more engages in sexual intercourse with another person less than 14 years old to whom the actor is not married.
RAPE IN THE FIRST DEGREE (Class B Violent Felony) - Up to 25 years in prison
Rape in the First Degree has occurred when a male engages in sexual intercourse with a female:
*By forcible compulsion; or
*Who is incapable of consent by reason of being physically helpless; or
*Who is less than 11 years old.
CONSENSUAL SODOMY (Class B Misdemeanor) - Up to 3 months in prison
*A person engages in deviate sexual intercourse with another person.
As Strauss-Kahn submitted to forensic examination following the allegations, the consent defense presumes that the accused is conceding the fact that sexual contact did in fact take place. In order to prove consent, he is going to have to establish that the maid came to his room willingly and was not forcibly detained. He faces two potential obstacles there: the key card electronic records for the room and the fact that he did not call up for housekeeping services. An article earlier this week in The New York Times indicates that hotels are likely to send up a male attendant if a male guest calls for housekeeping service, and that housekeepers routinely keep the door ajar while servicing rooms. Safety of housekeeping staff is a priority in most hotels.
Since there is no indication that Strauss-Kahn requested housekeeping service (according to the maid, she understood the room had been vacated at the time she entered it), there can be no presumption that the liason was prearranged. If a liason was prearranged, it is unlikely to have been with a member of housekeeping staff. The maid claims not to have known who Strauss-Kahn was.
Worse for Strauss-Kahn in the longer term politically, by claiming consensual conduct he is publicly refuting any claim of conspiracy in the face of a potential run for France's presidency.
He wouldn't be claiming consensual if he wasn't certain that forensic evidence would confirm contact. But if the key cards tell a story confirming that he locked her into that room after she entered, he will have an uphill battle convincing the court of consent.
Strauss-Kahn's room at the Sofitel Hotel in New York City. Electronic records of key card swipes are likely to figure significantly as evidence in the case of a hotel maid accusing the former IMF chief of sexual assault.
UPDATE: Former IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was indicted by a New York grand jury this afternoon on charges of sexual assault and will have to face trial or plead the charges, charges which could put him in prison for up to 25 years. His wife and daughter were present in the courtroom.
The indictment, not yet released to the public, includes two counts of criminal sexual act in the first degree, one count of attempted rape in the first degree, one count of sexual abuse in the first degree, one count of unlawful imprisonment in the second degree, one count of forcible touching, and one count of sexual abuse in the third degree.
The judge granted bail set at $1 million, and Strauss-Kahn will be released tomorrow restricted to his wife's NYC apartment with electronic monitoring. He also had to put up $5 million in assets as collateral.
Case detail on the charges can be found at the New York State Unified Court System website, Case #2011NY035773.
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Comments
I knew he would try and garner attention in this way.
Rated with hugs
Is the I.Q. of France that low that they make up conspiracy theories instead of believing the truth? Good grief! Thank god for DNA evidence.
We had to save their butt in WWII because of their national idiocy; is that going to have to happen again?
If you saw Bernard-Henri Levy's defense of DSK in the Daily Beast, you would have puked. It was one disgusting scream of privilege for powerful men. Every time he complained about how his friend was being handled, I became prouder of our justice system.
Her assertion is that she understood the room to be empty. She further asserts she did not know who occupied the room or was assumed to have just vacated.
Another flaw his his assertion that "nothing in the world can justify a man being thus thrown to the dogs."
Nothing is an extreme word for a philosopher to be using.
The most accurate thing he said in his Daily Beast article is the following: "I do not know what happened Saturday. . .in the room of the now famous Hotel Sofitel in New York."
Not knowing what happened between two people, consensual or otherwise, it's fairly difficult to comment on that aspect of a person, whether you consider them a friend or close acquaintance or not.
My husband was fond of saying, "The sex you get for free is the most expensive sex of all." Strauss-Kahn has essentially admitted to having the sex, and apparently, unless he tipped the maid extremely well, for free. Or maybe, not so free.
1) Strauss-Kahn was in the shower and was surprised by the housekeeper. The question arises, why was a "Do Not Disturb" put on the door while he was indisposed, if he didn't want someone to walk in on him, or why was the room not deadbolted.
2) Strauss-Kahn is surprised by the housekeeper in an indelicate state of dress just coming out of the shower, grabs a towel and asks her to return later. She obliges. He goes to lunch with his daughter, then to the airport.
3) Strauss-Kahn is surprised by the housekeeper stepping out of the shower and she forces herself on him. Unlikely.
4) Strauss-Kahn is surprised by the housekeeper, and is suspicious it could be a trap, given his position. He asks her to leave.
5) Strauss-Kahn calls down to the front desk to indicate he will be checking out, then decides to take a shower. The front desk conveys the room as a "check out" to housekeeping, not realizing the guest is still in the room. A housekeeper is sent to the room, opens it with her master key, is surprised to find a guest inside just stepping out of the shower, he grabs her instead of a towel, doesn't think about it possibly being a trap, and engages in sexual conduct. Better than a fruit basket. Easier than calling whats-her-name who doesn't want to send women to him anymore.
Oh man, I can't count the number of times that has happened to me. Hotels are dens of sin!! ~nodding~
:D
Rated!
Thank god I never considered a condescending POS like Bernard Henri-Levy a great philosopher, Cranky - 'cause I would have puked, too.
After reviewing the squalling of the French good and great over how their good friend DSK was so abused by the American justice system, a commenter on another political blog posted, "OK, next time we back the Krauts."
politicians are evil, socialists are good.
Is this form of behaviour narcissism or other psychopathology? I know the media will focus on the salacious but it is important to understand the pathology. It simply ruins lives and so much of it passes as unreported crimes.
you seem not to understand the basics of the US or any modern legal system. it is not up to him to prove anything. it is up to the prosecution to prove that the charges are true. somehow Im also going to state the obvious, but which is not obvious to some-- mere testimony of a female against a male is not proof that charges are true. other cases of his behavior eg the accusations of "rough sex" with a prostitute etcetera are almost surely not admissible evidence, as relevant to the case.
Also, I am using the concept of "proving" consensuality in the broadest sense. I appreciate it is up to the prosecution to prove their case, but the defense will still want to persuade jurors that they have a defense.
hmmmmmmmmmm
I guess if you are a [hardcore?] feminist, you see nothing wrong with this picture.
Is this form of behaviour narcissism or other psychopathology? I know the media will focus on the salacious but it is important to understand the pathology. It simply ruins lives and so much of it passes as unreported crimes."
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You have raised a valid point, Catherine. This does go on, but the powerful unions (I know from personal experience) have been able to defend and even reinstate a professor fired due to sexual harassment. It is a narcissistic /sociopathic behavior on the part of the latter, even if the act wese consentual, the professor should still respect his fiduciary responsibility, and discourage female students from any advances instead of acting upon them.
If DSK can't get away with it, then I'd better not even think about it should be going on in the heads of every potential rapist in the US.
my question to you is, is there any way for a man to send a woman to rikers for nearly a week based solely on word of mouth?
so yeah I guess there are some major Inequalities in the world. and not all of the type where females make 70% of what males do, at the same jobs, blah blah blah.
If so, I think a lot of people in NY and other states with similar laws need to go to jail?
Also, I am curious why you define this woman as a Muslim immigrant. If one is going to "type" an immigrant wouldn't usual way to be by country of origin?
Any man faced with a rape charge will always state it was consensual. It explains away any evidence (except, of course, bruises).
I've never seen a hotel where the cleaners work in pairs in one room. Hotel rooms are usually too small to prevent two cleaners from not getting in each other's way. Hotels generally have few large suites, so a cleaning policy would be based on the standard, not the most expensive room. You can go to their website and look at the pictures. It's hard to imagine two cleaners not tripping over each other and the furniture in those rooms. There would be no reason to change the cleaning policy for the few large suites.
Consensual sex with a professional and no foreplay might take no more than 5 minutes. If that was his habit and all the man wanted, why not schedule lunch with his daughter 30 minutes later?
I don't know NY law or cases, but the way the first degree rape is defined, I could imagine a case where the prosecution has evidence of compulsion and the defense asserts consent. Some sex includes a degree of aggressiveness that could be illegal unless it was consensual. I'd be curious if anyone who has experience with actual rape prosecutions in NY knows whether consent is an affirmative defense.
As far as sending someone to jail for a week on a woman's unvarnished word, no, that's not what happened. The police and the DA look at a variety of evidence. The totality of the evidence has to amount to probable cause. I can't go and have some random guy arrested for rape just because I'm a woman, any more than some guy can have me arrested because he says I stole his watch and there is no evidence to support it.
The fact that the woman is an immigrant tends to support her story. Most immigrants are from places where people fear to get involved with the law far more than middle class American white people can imagine. In general, immigrants do not want to draw attention to themselves. Any contact with officialdom could lead to a bad outcome. They also do not have a sophisticated understanding of the US legal system. Like in the Kobe Bryant case, the first red herring that gets thrown out is that the woman is seeing dollar signs when she accuses a powerful person of rape. In fact, as a child of immigrants who knows lots of immigrants, I know that many don't even realize you can sue for money in a case of rape. Immigrants, as a rule, are trying to survive, not hatching get rich quick schemes that require a greater grasp of the culture than they possess.
Bell, I think you bring up perhaps the best point overlooked sometimes in this discussion--whether or not DSK was impulsive, whether or not he showed good judgment, whether or not he was stable. As head of the IMF, that would be important. I suspect no one needed to flesh out his flaws and what torments him is that he did that all by himself.
Kim, good point. I suspect vzn would disagree with you.
vzn, it's difficult to gauge this case alongside others, because not too many people are head of the IMF. I don't know all the reasoning behind detaining him in Rikers, but I suspect it had as much to do with his own security and prevention of flight as anything. You can't write this stuff.
Joseph, I've outlined above the laws of the state of New York regarding sexual misconduct, rape and consensual sodomy. That should not be implied to mean I believe the accused is guilty of each or all of them or should be convicted accordingly. You might be confused on the issue of consent. When I'm referring to "deviate sexual intercourse" above it's in reference to the charge of sexual misconduct, not consensual sodomy. The type of sexual contact in the encounter will become important in the case, just as consent will. I don't believe you're suggesting that anyone engaging in consensual sodomy parallels what the maid is in this instance accusing.
Malusinka, the number of housekeepers in a hotel room at any one time varies from hotel to hotel, and can vary by room size and by particular circumstance. As someone who has some experience in that department (from both ends--I was once a hotel maid as a summer job in college, and have also been a guest in many hotels of varying sizes), I can attest there can be just one, even in a larger room, and there can be more than one, even in a smaller room. It depends on the circumstance. I find the time of day of this alleged encounter, right around traditional check-out time, to be relevant.
Sirenita, that's fascinating. It will be interesting to see what the New York laws are regarding that. I appreciate your perspective on being an immigrant, which will also, I suspect, be relevant in this case.
theangrychef, I went back and looked for your article. It might have gotten passed by because the subject matter wasn't in the title, but I couldn't say. I've had plenty of pieces here go totally unnoticed, even ones on important stories, so I can well appreciate your frustration.
Keep writing anyway.
Kathy: you say:
"Sgt. Mom, since he had a scheduled lunch date with his daughter, it's unlikely he scheduled any professional services right before."
I knew a European guy like this who made a point to have a meeting with his mistress for a quickie prior to lunch. It didn't matter who he was meeting, major funder or even his wife and kids. He thought it was good for his health, even that something bad would happen if he didn't keep it up. He lived very hard and fast and died quite young. But he was a charming and interesting fellow.
Anyhow, it all seems like a very unfortunate happening for all parties involved. Including the world that's in an economic crisis, and kinda needs a head of the IMF. Too bad his need for sex was so out of control that it came to this. Someone needs to teach these guys that there really are better ways to relax. I wish he had had his mind more on how to fix this crisis that how to get his next orgasm. He clearly has a problem...but is it a felony crime? Like driving drunk? Maybe. My point is, rather than using all these labels, maybe there's just a better way to frame these problems...and understand what the hell happened in that hotel room, for both parties. Where's the law for "accidental rape?"
For a number of reasons I find problems with the scenario you've suggested as possible. You have to suggest that the head of the International Monetary Fund ordered professional services (when it's already been mentioned in the press that the local area professionals wanted nothing further to do with him), all of which would be easily documentable by phone records, at a time when he was supposed to be checking out of a hotel, was unable to verify accurate identity, and managed to engage in courting behavior, all on the way to meet his daughter for lunch and catch a flight. It would also suggest that the housekeeping staff at the Sofitel was given to sleeping with guests, which I also find implausible. There's enough of the maid's story already out in the press to suggest this was anything but foreplay.
Your further point about wives and other family members looking the other way I believe is valid. In some cases, there is lack of knowledge, in others, complete denial or tacit approval.
IF the head of the IMF, or any other man (or woman), forcibly imprisoned a hotel employee and forced sex on them against their will, should that be regarded as a crime? Whether or not it should be, it is. Whether or not you think it should be probably depends on whether you are the hotel guest or the employee in this scenario.
The maid here learned a very hard lesson that many women worldwide know from experience: the time to start resisting a strange man is the first time he looks at you. Which is a terribly sad state of affairs for humankind.
I studied this bec am going to have to take up someone here myself soon in the light of all kinds of allegations he has been making - this taught me a good deal thanks Kathy. Physical injury one can live with somehow. Our name is all most of us have and it hurts when that is sullied.
KR states "Nor do I believe she had an opportunity to resist him."
lets take the maid story on face value that he locked the door. wait. is this imprisonment? its a significant, *maybe* even threatening gesture, but is it imprisonment? I think not. what prevents the maid from simply unlocking the door? is that in any of the supposed details so far? I think a reasonable jury would agree. we will see what happens here. I would be a little surprised if this goes to trial. but rumor is the maid is prepared to testify.
if there are bruises on the woman, as one commenter suggests as evidence, I agree that is evidence of force.
but as someone else points out, consensual sex can often involve bruises.... how many people have been bruised having sex? if you have never been bruised having sex, I guess you live in Vanilla World.....
sirenita talks about who has the burden of proof of consent, the prosecution or defense, and that there is "discussion" of moving it to the defense. well 1st of all our military tribunal system is now the laughingstock of the world as far as justice goes after the Bush/Cheney monster corruptions of it to turn it into a kangaroo court. I can imagine the obvious rejoinder, but then why should it be any more reasonable with rape charges? justice is BLIND..... except in our country I guess if the president accuses you of terrorism.... bradley manning was even stated to have committed a crime by the president prior to trial!!! what the @#&%& country am I living in anyway, USSR?
which in turn is arguably Unconstitutional.
but yeah in this country, its increasingly a weak argument appealing to legal precedent that stretches back 100s of years, which is also what the Magna Charta does, and which Bush/Cheney have p*ssed on and obama has no major objections or pushback.
from wikipedia--
Although the Constitution of the United States does not cite it explicitly, presumption of innocence is widely held to follow from the 5th, 6th, and 14th amendments. See also Coffin v. United States and In re Winship.
a little )( nit-- I dont know what you meant by your title. the essay is more accurately titled "What DSK needs to learn about US criminal sexual assault charges". do you have something to say about what actually constitutes Consent or Consensual Behavior? I somehow missed that part in your essay. did you ever write for newspapers or were you a journalist? maybe someone else cooked up your titles I guess.