Both sides in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case waged a raging battle of words today — with defense lawyers threatening to blast the maid’s credibility and prosecutors insisting she’s fireproof.
Defense lawyers fired first in the tit-for-tat exchange of court filings, claiming they have information that could “gravely undermine” the credibility of the maid who says a naked Strauss-Kahn pounced on her and forced her into oral sex when she arrived to clean his room at the Sofitel hotel.
The threat came wrapped within a larger filing in which defense lawyers urged prosecutors to do something to stop the damaging barrage of law-enforcement leaks that have filled press accounts with descriptions of DNA evidence, semen-stained carpets and hotel floor plan diagrams.
SOFITEL TO ALLOW MAIDS TO WEAR PANTS
“[W]ere we intent on improperly feeding this media frenzy, we could now release substantial information that in our view would seriously undermine the quality of this prosecution and also gravely undermine the credibility of the complainant in the case,” the motion read. The motion did not elaborate.
Prosecutors fired back acidly within hours of receiving the motion this morning.
“In light of your concerns about ‘permanently prejudicing potential jurors,’ we were troubled that you chose to inject into the public record your claim that you possess information that might negatively impact the case and “gravely” undermine the credibility of the victim,” prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon wrote.
“We are aware of no such information,” wrote Illuzzi-Orbon.
The motion concluded with one acid drop further: “If you really do possess the kind of information you suggest that you do, we trust you will forward it immediately to the District Attorney’s Office.”
The volley ostensibly concerns media leaks; angered by what they are calling the “continued leaking of information” by police, defense lawyers were asking prosecutors in the sensational sex assault case to make the cops shut up.
“We are writing at this time to express our concern about the continued leaking of information relating to this case that has been reported in the local and national media since the arrest of Mr. Strauss-Kahn on May 14, 2011.
“All of the leaked information has been attributed to sources in the New York Police Department,” the papers groaned.
Strauss-Kahn is represented by a legal team headed by William Taylor in Washington and Benjamin Brafman in New York.
But the parried threats and rejoinders offer a glimpse into the hardball playing and posturing between prosecutors and lawyers for the purportedly perverse Parisian.
The next court date before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus is Monday, June 6, when Strauss-Kahn will be arraigned on charges of attempted rape and criminal sex acts, and the two sides will step from behind their paperwork and face each other in a courtroom.