Prosecutor Requests DSK Charges Be Dismissed

By Jeralyn, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 10:56:32 AM EST
Tags: Dominique Strauss-Kahn (all tags)

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The prosecutor in the trial of Dominique Strauss-Kahn has asked that the charges of aggravated procurement be dismissed for lack of evidence. The women involved have dismissed their claims for damages against him.

Lille Prosecutor Frederic Fevre told the judges:

"Did Dominique Strauss-Kahn pay prostitutes? The answer is no. Did he p*mp prostitutes for others? The answer is no,"

The prosecutor originally recommended against the charges, but the investigating magistrate judges overruled him, saying that Strauss-Kahn was a key planner of the parties and knew that the women who attended them were prostitutes. But the evidence at trial failed to show DSK knew they were prostitutes and he testified and denied knowing they were paid. [More...]

"Everyone is free to live out their sexuality how they wish," Fevre said. "Neither the prosecutor nor the judge can set himself up as the guardian of moral order."

.... Fevre said their actions were those of "a group of friends who were satisfying their egos, ambitions and simply their sexual desires."

The prosecutor said he was disturbed by the disparate way DSK's trial was conducted. Only DSK's sexual practices were delved into by the prostitutes who testified, not those of the others on trial.

The judges do not have to accept the prosecutor's motion to acquit.

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Prosecutor Requests DSK Charges Be Dismissed | 31 comments (31 topical)

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Maybe they were (5.00 / 1) (#2)
by fishcamp on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 01:21:43 PM EST

vamps from Montparnasse.

Probably on a "need to know" basis. (none / 0) (#3)
by oculus on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 01:32:39 PM EST

Anyone who partakes but didn't procure is not criminally liable.


Speaking for myself only, ... (none / 0) (#8)
by Donald from Hawaii on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 04:06:51 PM EST

... over the last few years I've already learned way more than I'd ever need (or would even want) to know about DSK's personal proclivities. He may not be a criminal per se, but from my standpoint he's apparently lots of other things, none of them very flattering.

But that's enough about DSK's time as head of the International Monetary Fund. Personally, as much as I find DSK's conduct reprehensible, I agree with you that the charges of sexual procurement against him are likely a stretch.

But at the very least, it's the seedy personal behavior of men like DSK that's root cause for the perpetuation of sex trafficking in western Europe and North America. And on that note, I'd like to introduce everyone to one of his co-defendants among the so-called "Carlton 14," Monsieur Dominique Alderweireld, aka "Dodo the Pimp."

So, rather than focus exclusively on the narrow question of DSK's guilt or innocence, I hope that this trial can become the catalyst for a conversation that's very much overdue, regarding the corrosive effects of sex trafficking upon our society, in particular the profound personal devastation that illicit trade inflicts upon its mostly unwilling (and often very young) victims. Even DSK's lawyer Henri Leclerc agreed with that.

Aloha.


: So touching that DSK's (none / 0) (#10)
by oculus on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 04:29:14 PM EST

attorney recognized the plight of prostitutes as described the man trying to protect them.

Did the prostitutes who testified (none / 0) (#1)
by oculus on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 11:21:59 AM EST

at the trial ask themselves questions? Weird. Also, I'm curious as to who this group of friends thought the women at the party were, if not prostitutes?

Ah, come on (5.00 / 2) (#4)
by Reconstructionist on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 01:36:22 PM EST

doesn't everyone go to parties on occasion where random good looking young women spontaneously decide to have sex in from of everyone with old ugly fat guys?


The password is... (none / 0) (#5)
by kdog on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 03:15:24 PM EST

Fidelio.


Well, no wonder I couldn't get in! (none / 0) (#7)
by Donald from Hawaii on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 03:20:00 PM EST

I kept saying the word "Rosebud," and the guy behind the peephole in the alley door just kept responding, "Non! Go away, you stupid American!"


Did not realize you are an (none / 0) (#12)
by oculus on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 04:40:41 PM EST

opera fan.


Kubrick reference... (5.00 / 1) (#16)
by kdog on Wed Feb 18, 2015 at 10:50:41 AM EST

from his last movie, "Eyes Wide Shut"...but I figured it was an opera or something.


Just so you know, in (5.00 / 1) (#27)
by oculus on Wed Feb 18, 2015 at 07:39:36 PM EST

case you go on Jeopardy or something, "Fidelio" is Beethoven's only opera.


Can you see oculus (none / 0) (#18)
by Militarytracy on Wed Feb 18, 2015 at 11:40:42 AM EST

Plumping the couch cushions for a night of 'Eyes Wide Shut', cuz I just can't.


Not a very good movie imo... (5.00 / 1) (#19)
by kdog on Wed Feb 18, 2015 at 11:57:04 AM EST

certainly not up to Kubrick's high standards...whenever we get to talkin' about a DSK orgy, I always picture it like the scene from the movie...with the masks and chanting and assorted freaky-deek-ery.


: It was a strange movie (none / 0) (#20)
by Militarytracy on Wed Feb 18, 2015 at 11:58:00 AM EST

: Joe Sarno did the same scene in 1964's (none / 0) (#32)
by Mr Natural on Fri Feb 20, 2015 at 09:52:34 PM EST

Sin in the Suburbs. Except... instead of strolling around a Gold Coast mansion, the masked and robed suburbanites watched the fun from rows of wooden chairs in a dark Holiday Inn hotel room. The trailer is on Youtube.

That is just so sixtyish...... (none / 0) (#9)
by jimakaPPJ on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 04:24:30 PM EST

age that is....

And I am not fat.


and your'e not sixtyish either jim. :) (none / 0) (#15)
by fishcamp on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 10:52:29 PM EST

: But I am young at heart! (none / 0) (#25)
by jimakaPPJ on Wed Feb 18, 2015 at 04:27:25 PM EST

You Mean... (none / 0) (#11)
by ScottW714 on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 04:37:01 PM EST

...older rich men ? Who knows what they look like, but there are a couple bars in which maybe sex isn't happening, but places where younger women go to find older wealthy emn and others in which younger men to find older women of means.

Suspecting or even knowing they are prostitutes is not the same as arranging prostitution. Just because you invite a drug dealer to a party doesn't mean you are someone how arranging drug deals, even though there is a good chance it's happening. People like drug dealers at a party, probably as much as these men like prostitutes at a party, but inviting people who may or may not partake in illegal activities, isn't a crime.


It is actually an interesting position DSKs in. (none / 0) (#14)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 06:09:32 PM EST

Even though he was the "king" of all these parties, should he have merely "made it known" to his cohorts, who did all the actual work in setting up the parties, that he wanted hookers, and if he perhaps did not solicit them directly, does that mean he is not guilty?


: I believe they call it... (none / 0) (#17)
by kdog on Wed Feb 18, 2015 at 10:52:14 AM EST

"plausible deniability"...all the pols do it.

One of these days, ... (none / 0) (#6)
by Donald from Hawaii on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 03:16:59 PM EST

... karma will exact its toll from Monsieur Strauss-Kahn, and the results will not be pretty.

: He keeps his portrait in a locked closet. (5.00 / 4) (#13)
by Mr Natural on Tue Feb 17, 2015 at 05:27:39 PM EST

And that's all you have to know.

That is a weird spam... (none / 0) (#22)
by fishcamp on Wed Feb 18, 2015 at 02:24:39 PM EST

Site violator (none / 0) (#23)
by oculus on Wed Feb 18, 2015 at 03:37:17 PM EST

Who me? (none / 0) (#24)
by fishcamp on Wed Feb 18, 2015 at 04:06:20 PM EST

Yes I'v been known to violate sites in both English and Gaelic.


Well, as commenters here have (5.00 / 1) (#26)
by oculus on Wed Feb 18, 2015 at 07:37:15 PM EST

persistently instructed, if you depressed "parent," you would observe my reply was to the comment of the incompetent spanner!


: Always depress the parent (5.00 / 2) (#28)
by Militarytracy on Thu Feb 19, 2015 at 07:39:33 AM EST

That's a law or something :)

: Thank you for your kind instructions. (none / 0) (#29)
by fishcamp on Thu Feb 19, 2015 at 08:03:10 AM EST

depose the women involved (none / 0) (#30)
by thomas rogan on Thu Feb 19, 2015 at 10:28:43 AM EST

Let them swear that they have not been paid off now or have been promised a payoff in terms of money or favors and that they will not accept a payoff in the future. Aren't there rules about tampering with witnesses?

Bill O'Reilly .... (none / 0) (#31)
by Yman on Thu Feb 19, 2015 at 10:09:41 PM EST

... has his own Brian Williams problem.

Wonder if he'll be able to keep quiet and ride it out.