# Case against Strauss-Kahn said to be "close to collapse" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 1, 2011, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/case-against-strauss-kahn-said-to-be-close-to-collapse/587467 "2011-07-01T02:39:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/case-against-strauss-kahn-said-to-be-close-to-collapse/587467/21 "2011-07-02T10:39:40Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > It sounds like he probably did rape her, Based on …? > [@](#): > > but as she is a criminal involved in money laundering and inquired about cashing in on the case, the prosecution can’t ask a jury to believe her. Be that as it may, the prosecution will go forward if it thinks it has a case/feels it must try. They’ll ask the jury to believe that a naked man in a hotel room suddenly grabbed a woman and forced her to give him a blowjob (without injury to the penis, I should add). > [@](#): > > Just goes to show, if you are raped by a powerful or rich man, unless you’re a nun you are shit out of luck. The only thing this case has ‘shown’ is that when a rich and powerful man is accused of rape, the media goes bonkers. Rape is rape. The character of the woman has nothing to do with the definition of the crime, but her brother made her out to a be a (muslim version of a) nun in [an early NYT article](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/nyregion/strauss-kahns-accuser-portrayed-as-quiet-hard-working.html?scp=4&sq=strauss-kahn&st=cse). > [@](#): > > “She is a village girl who didn’t go to school to learn English, Greek, Portuguese, what have you,” said her older brother, 49, whose first name is Mamoudou. Not-so-subtle slam to the rich and privileged. > [@](#): > > “All she learned was the Koran. Can you imagine how on earth she is suffering through this ordeal?” > > “The place where she is now,” he added, “I don’t even know where it is.” Poor girl was growing up with the Koran and being righteous while DSK was learning other languages and engaging in God knows what! :dubious::smack: > [@](#): > > Religious Upbringing > \*\* > The woman, the youngest of five children, was raised in a deeply religious household, \*\*according to Mamoudou and another brother, Mamadou, who is in his early 50s. Both brothers still live in a village called Thiakoulle, where they grew up with her. > > (Guinea, in West Africa, is a mostly Muslim country, and many men from the woman’s ethnic group are called some variation of Mamadou, which is Muhammad in the local language, Fula. The New York Times generally does not identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault. To protect the woman’s identity, The Times has also omitted the surnames of her relatives.) > > Their father was a respected local imam, and when they were young they studied at home, the brothers said, using a set of traditional wooden panels inscribed with passages from the Koran. > \*\* > As a girl, she was shy, sheltered and raised to respect authority.\*\* The NYT (and everyone else) was quick to paint him as guilty before the juicy bits about this women’s past came along. Are these people really her relatives and did they get paid for this story? ---
**Author:** ![Noodles\_Fellicini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Noodles\_Fellicini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noodles_Fellicini)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/case-against-strauss-kahn-said-to-be-close-to-collapse/587467/22 "2011-07-02T18:27:52Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > It’s the way he’s often called in France. It isn’t a sensationalist invention of American journalists. Thank you – ignorance fought and irritation level diminished. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/case-against-strauss-kahn-said-to-be-close-to-collapse/587467/23 "2011-07-02T20:26:23Z")
I just read a long account of the case in today’s NY Times. Here is what seems to be true. There was sexual contact. Whether oral or vaginal the article seemed confused on, but his semen was found on the floor and on the wall (Huh?). She changed her story. There was some question of what she then did. She claimed that she cleaned another room, then came back to his. Usage of keys was recorded and the hotel recorder belies her story. It is not clear why she lied about this. She was involved in money laundering. While this impugns her credibility, it is still not clear why it is relevant. She made that phone call the next day which suggests that she was planning on holding him up for blackmail. For one reason or other, she didn’t try it. Or maybe she did and he told her to get lost. She definitely lied on her application as a refugee. She was not gang raped. She did not have a husband who died in prison. She was following a prepared script. I would expect that what she gets out of this is deported. And yes he is free on his own recognizance. He can go anywhere in the US, but not leave the country. There was some mention of a plea bargain to a misdemeanor but I cannot imagine what the misdemeanor could possibly be. Reduce rape to … fornication? Is that a crime? Anyway, her story is in tatters and I cannot really see a successful prosecution. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/case-against-strauss-kahn-said-to-be-close-to-collapse/587467/24 "2011-07-02T21:40:34Z")
This is the latest [Maid cleaning up as ‘hooker’ - \* Big tips for extra ‘turndown service’ \* Prosecutors list litany of lies, scams](http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/maid_cleaning_up_as_hooker_0mMd759PLuYGYYJyA0RNbI#ixzz1QzE3FX6l) ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/case-against-strauss-kahn-said-to-be-close-to-collapse/587467/25 "2011-07-02T22:19:27Z")
Sounds like another case of the old Nigerian Sex Scam. Don’t know what cultural underpinnings are so institutionally and regionally instilled to make these native Africans so morally bankrupt and scammy… ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2011, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/case-against-strauss-kahn-said-to-be-close-to-collapse/587467/26 "2011-07-03T01:02:58Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > The woman who laundered money and considered how to cash in on being raped comes out looking less than stellar? Well, I’d agree with you there. Bad things do happen to bad people, too. Not just good people. I don’t know about you, but I find it a _lot_ easier to believe that a woman who benefited from a ponzi scheme, is shown to have lied about being raped in the past to further her own personal interests, was turning tricks where the rape was alleged to have taken place, has been recorded declaring that her rationale for her course of action was was the deep pockets of the accused, and is revealed to be a copious emitter of self-serving falsehood… is merely lying about _this_ alleged rape as well. The alternative is to believe that an otherwise intelligent and responsible man thought that he could barrel out of the bathroom starkers, force himself on a chambermaid while she was trying to change the sheets, and everything would be business-as-usual for him. He would be so unconscious of common values that he would repeatedly call the scene of the crime back and as the woman’s co-workers to help him locate some lost property. It’s not just a case of “Well… this can’t be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.” It’s not that the accuser’s credibility is being unfairly impugned for some tenuous misdeeds that really don’t have much to do with the situation. It’s very hard to credit that a rape took place at all, under the circumstances. However, it seems fairly certain that some people will still complain “That privileged son-of-a-bitch only evaded justice because he was clever enough to choose some poor vulnerable woman that people would be quick to blame just because she was a habitual liar, criminal, and grifter. Remember, if you ever get raped, you’d better hope you’re a perfect angel or your rapist will walk free, laughing!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/case-against-strauss-kahn-said-to-be-close-to-collapse/587467.md?page=1)