From the interview, it sounds like Mr. Tarawally is quite the scammer when it comes to women. He appears to have two fiances and a wife from whom he is not yet divorced. The Daily Beast also interviewed his other fiance, Sonja Hill, a cosmetologist in Phoenix. She said she's been with Tarawally for about four years, and they began living together about four months before his 2010 arrent. Tarawally told the Daily Beast he and his wife, who lives in New York, have a five year son together.
Is the accuser another one of his victims?
But through the fog of Tarawally’s many dubious claims and denials emerges the picture of a man used to manipulating women for his own ends, perhaps to include the 32-year-old African immigrant chambermaid who accused Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault and attempted rape at the Manhattan Sofitel on May 14.
Tarawally presents some new credibility issues for the accuser. He denied he made bank deposits to her bank account. The New York Times said she told authorities when confronted with the deposits, that he must have made them. Which one of them is lying? If he didn't make the deposits, where did the money come from?
According to friends and relatives of the accuser, they were married in a religious but not civil ceremony and he is from the Gambia. Tarawally tells the Daily Beast he is from Sierra Leone. ICE lists his country of birth as Sierra Leone. Perhaps he was one of the many driven out of Sierra Leone to Gambia in the 1990's. (He was born in 1976.) If so, I wonder if he's filed a Petition for Withdrawal of Removal to prevent him from being sent back to Sierra Leone where he could be in danger.
He tells the Daily Beast he has known the accuser for 6 or 7 years. Her friends have said she met him when working at a Gambian Restaurant in the Bronx, which was the job she had before working at the Sofitel.
Tarawally pleaded guilty in November, 2010 to possession of marijuana for sale, a class 2 felony in Arizona. He was sentenced to time served (9 months)and 6 years of probation. The Court's sentencing order states (obtained from AZ online court dockets):
The Court has been informed that defendant was born in Sierra Leone (West Africa). In addition, the Court has been presented with sufficient evidence that defendant has been identified by federal authorities or a 287(g) officer as a person who is unlawfully present in the United States. Pursuant to A.R.S. § 11-1051© and Supreme Court Administrative Order 2010-91, the clerk shall send a copy of this order to the United States Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
He got a great deal. Three counts were dismissed as was the allegation that the quantity was "over the threshold" which I suspect is AZ legal speak for allowing him to plead to a lesser quantity and avoid a mandatory minimum sentence.
On the one hand, I feel sorry for anyone who had to serve time in a jail operated by Sheriff Joe Arpaio. On the other, he sounds like a scammer. His vouching for DSK's accuser is not worth much. And it leaves a big question mark as how so much money got into her bank account. Per the New York Times:
According to the two officials, the woman had a phone conversation with an incarcerated man within a day of her encounter with Mr. Strauss-Kahn in which she discussed the possible benefits of pursuing the charges against him. The conversation was recorded.
That man, the investigators learned, had been arrested on charges of possessing 400 pounds of marijuana. He is among a number of individuals who made multiple cash deposits, totaling around $100,000, into the woman’s bank account over the last two years. The deposits were made in Arizona, Georgia, New York and Pennsylvania.
The investigators also learned that she was paying hundreds of dollars every month in phone charges to five companies. The woman had insisted she had only one phone and said she knew nothing about the deposits except that they were made by a man she described as her fiancé and his friends. (my emphasis)
At least the mystery of the phone call on May 15 is solved. He called her (as I wrote earlier, immigration detainees can't receive telephone calls.) Since Blake Diallo said he referred her to attorney Jeff Shapiro the day of the incident when she called him from the hospital where she was being tested, and that he told her it was DSK she had accused, it stands to reason she would have told Tarawally on the 15th she had a lawyer and the man she was accusing was DSK -- or at least wealthy. The question remains, what was the context of her telling him this? What other context could there be to mentioning the guy was wealthy and she had her own lawyer?
I agree there appears to be no sign Tarawally and the accuser set DSK up in advance. But his interview provides no clarity on what happened in the room between them, or whether she's lied or embellished her account for money. The defense could make a good argument to a jury that she has a history of making up rape claims to further her own agenda. Once she did it to obtain residency in the U.S., this time its for her economic gain.
The takeway from the story for me is not that the inmate backs her up, it's that he contradicts her. She claimed he and his friends deposited close to $100,00 found in her bank account(s) and he denies it.
They both have major credibility issues. My prediction: When prosecutors finish the investigation into the five phones in her name and the $100,000 in deposits, in multiple states, the case against DSK will be dropped.
Background on the accuser, the inmate and the phone calls is here and here.
