NEW YORK—Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been placed under a suicide watch in jail as pressure mounted for him to resign as head of the powerful International Monetary Fund (IMF) after he was charged with sexually assaulting a chambermaid at a luxury Manhattan hotel.
As the 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn remained locked up in the notoriously tough Rikers Island prison on Wednesday, the lawyer for the 32-year-old maid sought to rebut allegations that her charges were a conspiracy and a setup.
There are strong indications that Strauss-Kahn, an influential, wealthy politician widely regarded as a strong candidate to run against the French President Nicolas Sarkozy next year, would put forward a defense that any sex would have been consensual.
The silver-haired Frenchman received a boost on Wednesday when an opinion poll in France showed that 57 percent of respondents believe that Strauss-Kahn is “a victim of a plot.” Thirty-two disagreed, and 11 percent had no opinion.
Elsewhere, however, calls intensified for Strauss-Kahn to step down as IMF director general, one of the most powerful positions in global finance.
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Strauss-Kahn “is obviously not in a position to run” the IMF, which provides emergency loans to stabilize teetering economies and is now grappling with the debt crisis in Europe.
“Considering the situation, that bail was denied, he has to figure out for himself that he is hurting the institution,” said Austria’s finance minister, Maria Fekter.
Strauss-Kahn is charged with attempted rape, sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. If convicted, he faces a minimum 25 years in prison.
Doctors concerned
Growing pressure may be taking a heavy toll on Strauss-Kahn, who was given at Rikers Island a routine mental health assessment to determine if he was a suicide risk.
According to a law enforcement official, Strauss-Kahn did or said something during that evaluation that made doctors concerned, and he is being monitored day and night.
But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of prisoner medical information, emphasized that Strauss-Kahn had not tried to harm himself.
Because of his stature, Strauss-Kahn has been assigned to a section of the Rikers Island jail that normally houses prisoners with highly contagious diseases, like measles or tuberculosis.
He has been placed in a wing with about 14 cells, all of them empty except for his. The cell has a toilet and a sink. He takes his meals there, with breakfast at 5 a.m., lunch at 11 a.m. and dinner at 5 p.m.
He may leave his cell from time to time and wander in the wing. He may also leave the building for an hour each day for recreation outdoors.
Maid struggles
Outside jail, the hotel housekeeper who accused Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault was struggling with what her lawyer, Jeffrey J. Shapiro, said was a life upended by the case.
Shapiro said the case had been devastating, keeping his client from her life, her routines and even her 15-year-old daughter. The woman has not been publicly identified by US authorities and has made no public statements on the case.
The lawyer said his client—a widowed immigrant from Guinea who was granted asylum seven years ago—had been unable to return to her job at the Sofitel New York or to her home, as both places had attracted swarms of foreign and local journalists.
Consensual sex
And as the woman remained in seclusion, there were suggestions that Strauss-Kahn would put forward a defense that any sex would have been consensual.
During Monday’s bail hearing, a lawyer for Strauss-Kahn, Benjamin Brafman, told the judge that he believed the “forensic evidence” was “not consistent with forcible encounter.”
Brafman did not disclose what forensic evidence he was referring to, or even if he had been apprised about what forensic evidence the prosecution had collected.
Even so, that statement seemed to suggest the defense may acknowledge that a sexual encounter had occurred.
On Tuesday, a person briefed on the case said the defense believed that any sex act may have been consensual.
Angry response
That elicited an angry response from Shapiro, who dismissed any suggestion that the housekeeper had agreed to have sex with Strauss-Kahn.
“There is no question this was not consensual—she was assaulted and she had to escape from him, which is why when she finally got out of the room, she reported it to security immediately,” the lawyer said.
“It doesn’t matter what Brafman says, and it doesn’t matter what the defendant says. Her story is her story, which she has told to everyone who asked her, and she is telling the truth. She has no agenda.”
Shapiro said his client “did not even know who this guy was” until she saw news accounts. “She is a simple housekeeper who was going into a room to clean a room.”
The woman, whose name has been reported in the French news media, emigrated from Guinea with her daughter, leaving that poor country under what Shapiro said he understood were “difficult circumstances.”
The lawyer said his client sought and was granted asylum in the United States, although he said he was unsure of her immigration status.
The woman, who speaks French and some English, is a widow, although her lawyer said he was unaware of the timing or the circumstances of her husband’s death.
Proud of her job
Shapiro said his client was very proud of her job, which she had held for three years, and the ability it gave her to support herself and her daughter.
“She would have done nothing to jeopardize this job,” he said. “She needs this job; this job was her lifeline. She is not a woman of resources; she is not a woman of pretense.”
According to Shapiro, his client has enormous pride and is unsure what her life will be like going forward.
“The fact of the matter is this is a situation that she didn’t choose,” the lawyer said. “She’s been victimized not only by what happened in that hotel room but by the fact that her life has been taken away from her for who knows how long.”
Accuser’s credibility
If Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers were to argue at the trial that the activity was consensual, such a defense may hinge on the credibility of the accuser.
The task of looking into her background, as well as examining weaknesses in her account, would fall to the defense lawyers and investigators whom they have hired from the firm Guidepost Solutions.
The defense team is likely to be back in Criminal Court on Friday when a grand jury is expected to hand down an indictment against Strauss-Kahn. If an indictment is not issued this week, he would be eligible for immediate release.
Criminal Court Judge Melissa C. Jackson has already refused Strauss-Kahn bail, although his defense team is free to seek bail from a higher-ranking judge in State Supreme Court.
A law enforcement official said that “more than one” woman had contacted investigators to suggest they had been sexually assaulted by Strauss-Kahn, but officials were still determining whether they would go to France to investigate.
New scrutiny
Strauss-Kahn’s past conduct with other women is getting new scrutiny.
He was investigated internally by the IMF following a 2008 affair with an employee, the Hungarian-born economist Piroska Nagy.
The IMF eventually absolved Strauss-Kahn of wrongdoing, but on Tuesday a person close to Nagy said she had sent the organization a letter at the time warning about his behavior toward women.
The letter voiced “doubts about Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s suitability for running an international institution,” according to the person, who declined to be identified, citing the sensitivity of the matter.
The New York Times published an excerpt of the letter, along with an account that said Strauss-Kahn had aggressively pursued Nagy, sent her sexually explicit messages and once had her summoned from the bathroom to speak to him.
Strauss-Kahn himself appeared to realize that his relationships with women could be a political problem. Reports from the New York Times News Service and AP