NEW YORK – A judge agreed Thursday to free former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn from a New York City jail on the condition that he post $1 million in bail and remain under house arrest, under the watch of armed guards, at a private apartment in Manhattan.  The 62-year-old banker and diplomat wore an expression of relief after Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Obus announced his decision in a packed Manhattan courtroom. Later, he blew a kiss toward his wife.
The ruling didn’t free Strauss-Kahn immediately. Authorities need time to review and approve the security arrangements involved in his home detention, which lawyers said would be at an apartment rented by his wife. They did not disclose the location of the home.
Strauss-Kahn will also have to take out a $5 million insurance bond. It’s not believed the wealthy banker will have any problem meeting the financial conditions of his release.  “He’s going back to Rikers tonight and we expect him to be released tomorrow,” said William Taylor, one of his attorneys.
His political career in shambles and his leadership of the IMF a memory, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was formally indicted at Thursday’s hearing on charges that he sexually abused a maid at a Manhattan hotel. Since his arrest, the French politician has been held at the city’s bleak Rikers Island jail complex. Prosecutors had opposed his release, saying his wealth and international connections would make it easy for him to flee.

A prosecutor began Thursday’s hearing by announcing that a grand jury had found enough evidence for an indictment, a procedural step that elevates the seriousness of the charge. Without it, authorities would have been unable to detain him for longer than a week.  “The proof against him is substantial. It is continuing to grow every day as the investigation continues,” said Assistant District Attorney John “Artie” McConnell. “We have a man who, by his own conduct in this case, has shown a propensity for impulsive criminal conduct.”
Strauss arrived for the hearing wearing a gray suit and an open blue shirt. As he entered, he turned to give a quick smile to his daughter and wife, the French television journalist Anne Sinclair, seated in the gallery.   Similar house arrest arrangements have been made for other high-profile defendants in the city, most notably Bernard Madoff, the Ponzi scheme mastermind who stole billions of dollars from his clients.
Taylor called the arrangement “restrictive,” although he suggested few precautions were necessary.   “In our view, no bail is required to confirm Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s appearance. He is an honorable man. He will appear in this court and anywhere else the court directs, and he has only one interest at this time, and that is to clear his name,” Taylor said.
The defense team made an initial request for bail on Monday that was denied, but was making additional arguments before a new judge, Obus, for the first time. The judge oversees all criminal courts in Manhattan.   In France, a Socialist lawmaker and longtime ally, Francois Pupponi, expressed relief at the decision to allow Strauss-Kahn to leave jail.
“There’s finally a bit of good news in a terrible week,” he said on BFM-TV. “We were no longer expecting good news.”  Strauss-Kahn resigned as managing director of the International Monetary Fund late Wednesday, saying he needed to focus on clearing his name.   Scores of reporters lined up outside the courtroom door before the hearing, with a huge crowd of journalists and cameras poised outside the building. State court system spokesman David Bookstaver said the media throng was one of the biggest at the courthouse since Mark David Chapman was arrested in the 1980 killing of John Lennon.
Sinclair emerged from a black town car shortly before the scheduled hearing time. As she was rushed into the courthouse by security officers, one of her shoes slipped off as she was being led up some stairs. She struggled for a moment to get it back on as court guards shouted at a jostling scrum of photographers.   “Are you confident?” One journalist shouted. Sinclair stared straight ahead and did not respond.
Strauss-Kahn is accused of attacking a 32-year-old housekeeper Saturday afternoon at his Manhattan hotel suite. The West African immigrant told police that he chased her down a hallway, forced her to perform oral sex and tried to remove her stockings.   Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. called the charges “extremely serious.”
In his resignation letter, released by the IMF executive board, Strauss-Kahn denied the allegations against him, but said he would quit to protect the institution.  The political wrangling over who will succeed Strauss-Kahn at the IMF already has begun. European officials, including Germany’s chancellor, the European Commission and France’s finance minister, have been arguing that his replacement should be European.
Some authorities from China and Brazil have said it is time to break Europe’s traditional dominance over the position and appoint someone from a developing nation. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has asked for an “open process,” without mentioning any specific candidates.
————————- Original Thread Below ——————————————
This guy sounds like a real creep. After reading the article I wonder if he should be considered for bail…… NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund who was arrested in New York City for alleged sexual assault, has a court hearing scheduled for Thursday morning to seek his release on bail.  A court administrator says the hearing concerns a special application on behalf of Strauss-Kahn. Citing a source, CBS 2′s Tony Aiello reported that the International Monetary Fund chief could be out of prison by Thursday by posting $1 million bail and subjecting himself to electronic monitoring while remaining in the Big Apple.

Late Wednesday night the IMF said its embattled managing director intends to resign, effective immediately.  The IMF’s executive board released a letter from the French executive in which he denied the allegations lodged against him but said that with “great sadness” he felt compelled to resign. He said he was thinking of his family and that he wanted to protect the IMF.
A judge had held Strauss-Kahn without bail on Monday. He has been charged with attempted rape, sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching, punishable by five to 25 years in prison.
Click here to read the criminal complaint against Strauss-Kahn.  (*WARNING* the complaint lists some rather graphic descriptives of sexual acts.)
Strauss-Kahn is accused of trying to rape a housekeeper at a Midtown luxury hotel. The 32-year-old single mother from West Africa says Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her when she entered what she thought was an empty penthouse suite at the Sofitel Hotel.
The French politician has been placed on a suicide watch while being held in at Rikers Island. That includes having to wear shoes without laces, a jumpsuit instead of drawstring pants and being placed under increased observation.  “When you come into the system, you are evaluated by doctors, psychologists and they deem it necessary to put a suicide watch on him,” explained Norman Seabrook, president of the New York City Corrections Officers Benevolent Association. “So he’s watched and monitored 24-hours a day.”  Seabrook, who is also a corrections officer at Rikers Island where Strauss-Kahn is being held, says the IMF chief is being treated just like other inmate.
Meanwhile, grand jurors were meeting at Manhattan Criminal Court Wednesday considering indictments against Strauss-Kahn. The 23 grand jurors were expected to hear from all available witnesses, including the alleged victim herself, her co-workers, security officers from the hotel and the medical personnel who examined her at St. Luke’s Hospital.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said authorities were still working the case.  “Detectives investigating this case found the complainant to be credible,” Kelly said.  Two law enforcement officials told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity that investigators were using a piece of hotel room carpet to create a forensic trail in the case.  The officials say the carpet was cut from a place where the maid says she spit after being forced to have oral sex with Strauss-Kahn.  Investigators believe the carpet may contain the financial leader’s semen, which would be crucial forensic evidence that would back up the charges.
Since his arrest, reports began to develop that the accuser was HIV positive, the Post reported earlier this week that she lived in a Bronx apartment exclusively for adults with HIV or AIDS.  But her attorney Jeffrey Shapiro said Wednesday that she was only subletting that apartment and does not have HIV.  “She feels like she can’t go home, feels like she’s been excised from her life, doesn’t know what her future will bring and doesn’t know how she can ever resume a life, much less how to deal with having been assaulted and raped,” Shapiro said.
The defense has also floated a theory that any sex was consensual, something flatly rejected by Shapiro.  ‘There was nothing about any aspect of this encounter between this young woman and the defendant which was remotely consensual,” he said.
Something about this makes me wonder if he would just high tail it outta New York via private jet if needed to avoid conviction.  Even without a passport he has the resources to flee.  What do you think?  Should he be granted bail?…../SD