WALK OF SHAME: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, with wife Anne Sinclair, is jeered by demonstrators yesterday as he exits Manhattan Criminal Court. (Kristin Callahan/Ace Pictures)
DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE: Hotel maids protest the ex-IMF chief yesterday outside a downtown coutrhouse where he pleaded not guilty to attacking one of ther own. (REUTERS)
Accused slimeball financier Dominique Strauss-Kahn was greeted by a gantlet of shame yesterday outside the Manhattan courthouse where he pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting a hotel maid.
Nearly 200 chambermaids — many in their hotel uniforms — lined up on both sides of the Criminal Court entrance to jeer the French lothario, along with his stoic-looking billionaire wife, Anne Sinclair, as they ambled inside.
“Shame on you! Shame on you!” the room attendants shouted at the now-reviled Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief and onetime contender for the French presidency.
The maids had gathered to show support for the 32-year-old alleged victim, who has vowed to face Strauss- Kahn in court.
“Now we know we have the right to stand up for anything. We have a voice and can speak up,” said Nicole Aigoro, 42, a room attendant at the Hilton New York who, like many demonstrators, was bused in by Local 6 of the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union.
“We came to support the lady who was sexually molested by the guy — the rich, powerful French man who takes advantage of people in a position less than them.”
Speak up they did, with their cries audible all the way up in the 13th-floor courtroom where Strauss- Kahn, 62, formally entered his not- guilty plea in a quiet, French-accented voice — to charges of a criminal sex act, at tempted rape, sex abuse, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching — for his alleged assault of a Sofitel chambermaid on May 14.
Sinclair, his American-born wife, sat in a front-row seat, dressed all in black, as if attending a funeral.
“All of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s power and money and influence will not keep what happened in that hotel room from coming out,” the accuser’s attorney, Kenneth Thompson, told reporters after the arraignment.
Thompson said that the woman — who is being kept in a secret location and whose name is being withheld by The Post — wants to champion the rights of abused women everywhere.
“She is going to come into this courthouse, get on that witness stand and tell the world what happened to her,” he said of the alleged victim, an immigrant from the West African nation of Guinea. “She’s standing up for all women and children around the world.”
Thompson said his client was “devastated” and “traumatized” by the incident — strongly hinting that a civil lawsuit is in the works.
The lawyer would not address questions concerning any eventual litigation against Strauss-Kahn, or concerning any attempts by Strauss-Kahn to “buy” the maid’s silence.
Close friends of the banker have told The Post that he’ll never spend a night in jail because a payoff has already been broached with her family — a claim her relatives in Guinea have denied.
Law-enforcement sources have said they’ve found Strauss-Kahn’s semen on the maid’s shirt.
But defense attorney Benjamin Brafman blasted the media leaks about the alleged evidence and repeated his previous insistence that whatever happened in the hotel room was consensual.
“In our judgement, once the evidence is reviewed, it will be clear that there was no element of forcible compulsion in this case whatsoever,” Brafman said. “Any suggestion to the contrary is simply not credible.”
The maid’s supporters scoffed at the suggestion that any contact was consensual and said many of them have been subject to harassment or worse, such as the room attendant allegedly attacked by Egyptian banker Mahmoud Abdel-Salam Omar at The Pierre hotel last week.
“Woman is something you can’t play with, especially here in New York,” said Aissata Bocum, 46, a New York Ramada Inn attendant. “You’re in the room and people in the room naked. That is something that happens often, not rape, but indecencies. ‘Let me give you this’ [a hotel guest said] — it happens.
“He’s a multimillionaire but what he did brought him to zero,” she added.
Since the two high-profile assaults, hotels have beefed up security, given some maids panic buttons, and allowed others to wear pants instead of skirts.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus set July 18 as the next court date, although Strauss-Kahn may not attend because of the circus he attracts with his every public appearance, court officials said.
Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers also asked the Manhattan DA’s office not to pry into any post-arrest emails, texts or voicemails in the banker’s confiscated iPad, computer and “several” cellphones.
“The [prosecution], in particular, should not review any electronic mail that post-dates Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s arrest, as it may contain confidential defense information,” Brafman asked in court papers.
Strauss-Kahn will continue to live under house arrest at a $50,000-a-month townhouse on Franklin Street in TriBeCa that has attracted scores of reporters from around the world.
Additional reporting by Dareh Gregorian