The Reconstruction of Dom and Con

Strauss-Kahn

And so it begins, the Great Reputation Reconstruction of two multi-millionaires who insist they were wronged by justice system of the United States of America.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, was on television during the weekend telling folks that he has "devoted his life to being useful to the people," indicating one little sexual mistake should not prevent him from continuing to do wonderful works for the world.

Strauss-Kahn is the former head of the International Monetary Fund who hopes to become president of France next year. His plans for more future greatness were sidetracked when he was arrested in New York City and charged with raping a hotel maid. The charges later were dropped. He said he had sex with the maid, but it was a “moral fault,” not rape, and that she lied about what really happened.

The television interview was conducted by a friend of Strauss-Kahn’s wife, incredibly rich heiress Anne Sinclair.

He still is trying to beat down the accusations of a female journalist who says he jumped on her like a “rutting chimpanzee” during an interview in 2003.  Also, a former IMF economist has said Strauss-Kahn used his position to have sex with her.

Meanwhile, multi-millionaire Conrad Black, 67, gave his own media interviews before going back to prison in Florida Sept. 6. He’s doing three and one-half years for mail fraud and obstruction of justice in fraud investigations of his now-collapsed media empire. He had been out of prison, and living in a five-star New York Hotel, during a partially-successful appeal process.

He says he’s a humbler and more sensitive person but insists he did nothing wrong, and is a victim of a vicious U.S. justice system.

Black

Two rich men known for their arrogance seeking to be seen as men now changed after seeing the light. Their money and remnants of their power will make their reconstruction successful among some people. The majority of us, however, will simply wish they fade to black on television screens and in the newspapers. No matter their money or their influence, most people wouldn’t want either into their homes for dinner. No matter what their guilt, or non-guilt, these are not people we want our children to admire.

Hell Begins for the Hotel Maid

Time in Hell begins in earnest now for the hotel maid who says she was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62-year-old world heavyweight political-finance guy. The courts start hearing the case against DSK this week.

New York Court System Begins DSK Trial This Week

DSK, head of the International Monetary Fund and potential next president of France until NYPD slapped handcuffs on him May 14, will unleash a tsunami of defence against the 32-year-old immigrant and widow.

Police say DSK grabbed her and tried to rape her when she arrived to clean his $3,000-a-night suite at New York’s Sofitel Hotel.

She has been in hiding since the alleged incident, building strength for the misery that lies ahead. He is out of jail on $6-million bail, but under house arrest at his rented $50,000-a-month town house in New York’s rich Tribeca neighbourhood. The place is 6,800 square feet has a home cinema, luxury spa, waterfall showers, gym and roof terrace. Strauss-Kahn has hired a powerful team of investigators, former spies and media spin doctors who will attempt to destroy this woman and her story. The betting is that the defence will be that she agreed to have sex with him for money. DSK has a history in his native France, where he has been publicly called “the Great Seducer.”

The woman emigrated from a small West African village after her husband died. She is a single mother.

The legal system is supposed to decide DSK’s innocence or guilt fairly and without a lot of ugliness. Unfortunately, it will be a nasty, dirty trial. The District Attorney’s office has its work cut out for it. It does not have the money and resources to match DSK’s massive defence effort.

That’s the way it is in most court systems. The rich and strong hold an advantage.

Accuser and accused no longer are on equal ground. Consider if you are an average person accused of a serious crime. The cost of you defending yourself is so steep that you are ruined financially, whether you did anything wrong or not.

This is a fascinating case that will provide much drama. You can get right into the legal details by going to http://nycourts.gov/whatsnew/. There you’ll find the latest filings made to the court, including the original complaint laid by police.

SVU and the French Connection

Writers and producers of the TV drama Law and Order: Special Victims Unit must be wearing grins as long as the Brooklyn Bridge. For them, the arrest of world heavyweight political-finance guy Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, on serious sexual assault charges is manna from heaven.

Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund and powerful French Socialist politico has been sitting in the noisy and dangerous Rikers Island jail since being arrested by NYPD on the weekend. If you watch Law and Order, you have an idea just how far removed Rikers is from Monsieur Strauss-Kahn’s rich and privileged world.

Law and Order episodes often are based on real cases, and this one is bound to show in future. The real SVU took Strauss-Kahn into custody and the charges against him were laid by SVU Detective Steven Lane, shield 03295. One hopes that Detective Lane does not have an anger management problem like Detective Elliot Stabler in the TV show.

Strauss-Kahn had been poised to win the French presidency in the next election. Now he will stand trial on charges of confining a Sofitel Hotel maid and trying to rape her. His time before the courts will not be helped by his admitted affair with a married IMF employee, and an alleged sexual assault on a young novelist during an interview. He is publicly known in France as “the Great Seducer.”

The prosecutors and the defence lawyers already are doing their pre-trial dog-and-pony shows. Strauss-Kahn was made to do the famous NYPD perp walk, while his defence team is working the media with teasing tidbits about how they already have the stuff to prove their guy innocent.

Well, the courts will sort through all this and decide whether Strauss-Kahn is innocent or guilty. What they will not decide is why people like Strauss-Kahn become seduced by power and wealth.

The man is a Socialist. Yet he stays in a $3,000-a-night suite at the Sofitel, wears $7,000 suits, travels first class and drives wildly-expensive sports cars. He earns roughly $500,000 a year (tax free no less). He is married to millionaire art heiress Anne Sinclair and they have a $5-million Paris apartment, vacation home in Morocco and a place in Washington, D.C. No one begrudges him the wealth, but you would think France’s top Socialist would be a little less haughty and more restrained in flashing it about.

Until now, he has lived under the protection of the French code in which sexual indiscretions are not for serious public discussion. The French like their politicians to display sexual prowess as a sign of vigor for leading. “Live happy, live hidden,” the French say.

That’s not the way NYPD’s Special Victims Unit sees things. Stabler, Benson and Fin would not be amused. Watch for the real-life show in the New York courts, then wait for the Law and Order: SVU version.