Lawyers for the maid, Guinean immigrant Nafissatou Diallo, wrote in the lawsuit that Strauss-Kahn “intentionally, brutally and violently sexually assaulted Ms. Diallo and in the process humiliated, degraded, violated and robbed Ms. Diallo of her dignity as a woman.”
The lawyers, Kenneth Thompson and Douglas Wigdor, promised to tell a jury about other instances when Strauss-Kahn sexually attacked women in hotel rooms and apartments, coerced employees into complying with sexual demands or accosted women with inappropriate sexual remarks and tried to get them to perform sexual acts.
They said the lawsuit, seeking unspecified damages, would “redress the violent and sadistic attack by defendant Strauss-Kahn on Nafissatou Diallo when he sexually assaulted” her on May 14 at the Sofitel hotel in midtown Manhattan.
“In his haste to flee the scene of a crime, he rushed out of the hotel with toothpaste smeared on the outside of his mouth and was looking over his shoulders,” the lawsuit says.
The attack has left Diallo physically and psychologically harmed, with permanent damage done to her professional and personal reputations along with severe mental anguish from which she may never fully recover, the lawsuit says. She suffers great emotional distress, humiliation, depression and physical pain, and the experience has “left Ms. Diallo’s life and her young daughter’s life in shambles,” it says.
Lawyers for Strauss-Kahn said the maid’s lawsuit has no merit and their client will fight it vigorously.
“We have maintained from the beginning that the motivation of Mr. Thompson and his client was to make money,” attorneys William W. Taylor and Benjamin Brafman said. “The filing of this lawsuit ends any doubt on that question.”
The filing of a civil lawsuit so quickly after an arrest provides an avenue for lawyers to pursue evidence and interview witnesses for a potential civil trial while memories are fresh. Other high-profile defendants who’ve faced civil suits and criminal charges at the same time include Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant and late pop music icon Michael Jackson.
Veteran defense lawyer Gerald Shargel, who’s not involved in the Strauss-Kahn case, said some lawyers delay filing a civil lawsuit to deprive the defense in a criminal trial from asking witnesses questions about the civil suit. But he added that he has found that the majority of lawyers file civil suits in sexual-assault cases before criminal trials.
“It may have some effect on the jury’s verdict, but it rarely decides the outcome,” he said.
A defense lawyer who specializes in sexual abuse cases, Tom A. Pavlinic, said Diallo put her credibility at risk by bringing the civil lawsuit.
“She has done him a favor,” Pavlinic said. “Prosecutors, in my experience, don’t like when complainants in criminal cases initiate litigation in a civil case.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment on the filing of the lawsuit.
Strauss-Kahn, widely seen as a potentially successful French presidential candidate before his May 14 arrest, was pulled off a plane and detained hours after Diallo reported she was attacked. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted rape and other crimes. He and his lawyers have called a series of interviews Diallo conducted in recent weeks “an unseemly circus” designed to inflame public opinion.
Strauss-Kahn, who’s 65 and married, resigned his IMF post after his arrest. He was freed from house arrest last month after prosecutors said publicly that they had discovered facts that cast doubt on his 32-year-old accuser’s credibility.
Prosecutors have said Diallo lied about her background — including telling them an emotional story of being gang-raped in her homeland. She says now she was raped but not in the manner she described as part of an application for US asylum.
Strauss-Kahn, who isn’t permitted to leave the United States, is due back in criminal court Aug. 23.
