Strauss-Kahn rape cases to unite?
It looks like the case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn isn`t quite over yet.
Attorneys representing the two women who allege that the former IMF head raped them met for the first time on Tuesday, signaling that the thought-to-be-over sexual assault case coming from a NYC hotel maid could be gaining new ground.
Lawyers David Koubbi (representing French writer Tristane Banon) and Kenneth Thompson (of the NYC case) met in New York this week, but the exact details of their discussion were not made public. Koubbi had insisted earlier, however, that he did not want the two cases linked.
"Neither Tristane Banon nor I want to be used by the American justice system, or give any support whatsoever to the idea that the two cases are linked in any way whatsoever," Koubbi told reporters recently. "If they want the support of Tristane Banon it will be categorically refused."
Speaking to Paris Match magazine, Koubbi adds, "There are two cases, clearly, and each case has to be treated in isolation according to the laws of the country concerned."
Banon first came forth with allegations of rape only weeks ago as the case involving the New York incident began to crumble. Banon attests that DSK tried to rape her during a book interview nearly a decade earlier, to which the ex-IMF big-wig shrugged off as "imaginary."
Recent revelations made by NYC prosecutors largely discrediting the hotel maid`s allegations led to Strauss-Kahn to be released from behind bars earlier this month. Prosecutors revealed that the 32-year-old chambermaid that said DSK forced her into performing oral sex had made up a story about an alleged rape years earlier, and phone records obtained linked her to a convicted drug dealer and a conversation between the two in which the compensatory possibilities of the rape case were discussed.
Speaking to the New York Post this month as the allegations were unearthed, an anonymous source went on the record to say the supposed victim`s credibility had been shot. "Her credibility is so bad now, we know we cannot sustain a case with her. She is not to be believed in anything that comes out of her mouth - which is a shame, because now we may never know what happened in that hotel room," says the source.
Strauss-Kahn`s attorneys have since filed a countersuit against Banon for defamation. Her allegations cannot be used necessarily in the hotel maid case, though attorneys might be able to prove "pertinence" between the incidents in order to establish a character profile capable of rape.
French magazine Le Point reports, however, that just isn?t the kind of guy DSK is. According to the mag, Strauss Kahn`s wife recently told friends that her infamous husband is "a seducer, not a rapist."
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