DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, pleaded not guilty to seven charges of attempted rape and sexual assault in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday.
Estimates of the prison sentence risked by Mr Strauss-Kahn range from 25 to 74 years. Until his arrest on May 14th, he was the leading contender for the 2012 French presidential election.
Mr Strauss-Kahn was accompanied in court by his wife, the Franco-American heiress and former television journalist Anne Sinclair. The couple were booed when they arrived.
“Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on you,” chanted several dozen hotel maids, who were brought there by their union in buses.
Nafissatou Diallo, the 32-year-old immigrant from west Africa who accuses Mr Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her and forcing her to perform oral sex in his $3,000 a night hotel suite, did not attend yesterday’s brief hearing.
In a letter to the district attorney, Mr Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers said they have “substantial information” that would “gravely undermine the credibility” of Ms Diallo.
The defence lawyers have hired Guidepost Solutions, a private investigation company headed by a former federal prosecutor, to rifle through Ms Diallo’s private life and past.
There has been speculation that the case against Mr Strauss-Kahn will fall apart if Ms Diallo decides not to testify.
Despite what he labelled a “smear campaign”, her attorney Kenneth Thompson said after the hearing: “She is going to come into this courthouse, get on the witness stand and tell the world what Dominique Strauss-Kahn did to her.”
Ms Diallo has lived in hiding since Mr Strauss-Kahn was taken from the first-class compartment of an Air France jet bound for Paris moments before it was to take off. He is now confined to a luxurious townhouse rented by Ms Sinclair.
She is estimated to be spending $200,000 a month for the house and two round-the-clock guards required by the judge.
Mr Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers have given strong indications they will claim that the sexual encounter between him and the hotel maid was by mutual consent. If they can introduce sufficient doubt in the mind of only one juror, he will not be convicted.
Yesterday’s hearing introduced the “discovery” phase of proceedings, when the defence is given access to all materials held by the prosecution.
The entire hearing lasted at most seven minutes.
Judge Michael Obus scheduled the next preliminary hearing for July 18th at 2pm. There is some doubt as to whether Mr Strauss-Kahn’s trial will begin on September 8th, as announced last month.