Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn pleaded not guilty three weeks after his arrest on charges of sexually assaulting and attempting to rape a Manhattan hotel maid.
“Not guilty,” Strauss-Kahn, wearing a blue tie and a dark suit, told New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus today in Manhattan. The defendant was flanked by his attorneys, Benjamin Brafman and William Taylor III. After the hearing, Strauss-Kahn left the courthouse hand-in-hand with his wife, Anne Sinclair, as hotel workers shouted “Shame on you”.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested May 14 and later indicted on seven counts, including criminal sex act, attempted rape, sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. If convicted of the top charges, he faces as long as 25 years in prison.
He allegedly attacked a housekeeper, a 32-year-old from Guinea, at the Midtown Manhattan Sofitel on May 14, grabbing her breasts and trying to pull down her pantyhose, prosecutors said in court papers. The former IMF chief attempted to rape her and forced oral sex, according to the indictment.
“There was no element of forcible compulsion whatsoever in this case,” Brafman told reporters outside the courthouse after the arraignment.