Because Jail Is For The Little People

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has moved into the location that will serve as the scene of his house arrest until trial:

Mr. Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was also on the move on Wednesday; he had found a new place to live in Manhattan, at 153 Franklin Street, and he moved there early Wednesday evening.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who is accused of sexually assaulting a housekeeper at the Sofitel New York hotel, and is free on $1 million cash bail and $5 million bond, had been under house arrest in an apartment at 71 Broadway in Lower Manhattan.

His new home is a free-standing three-floor town house in TriBeCa that was recently renovated by Leopoldo Rosati, and had been on the market for nearly $14 million. The town house features a rooftop deck, a fitness center, a custom theater, a steam spa bath, two Italian limestone baths, two Duravit jet tubs, a waterfall shower and a dual rainfall steam shower.

Under the terms of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s bail, he can leave his home only under limited circumstances, must be under 24-hour armed surveillance and must wear an electronic ankle monitor.

Now, I’m not saying that Strauss-Kahn should be kept in jail if can comply with acceptable bail package, and if he owned this home prior to arrest he’d be going there too. However, when you combine it with reports that DSK was reported to have told the Sofitel maid “Don’t you know who I am?” when he attacked her, it does sort of give the impression of some kind of internationalist Gilded Age doesn’t it?

 

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. george says:

    I guess it comes down to how common is house arrest for such a charge. If its common, then it just means his money allows him to stay in a nicer place. If its uncommon, then it would appear that a different kind of justice is being served.

  2. Andre Kenji says:
  3. jwest says:

    At least DSK was arrested.

    Al Gore is still roaming free, molesting multiple massage therapists.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/two-more-women-accuse-al-gore-of-assault-2010-7

  4. Moosebreath says:

    “it does sort of give the impression of some kind of internationalist Gilded Age doesn’t it?”

    Can you explain from your political perspective what you think is wrong with the Gilded Age? My impression of libertarians was that was as close to their Platonic ideal as we had in this country’s history.

  5. Moosebreath,

    In this case it is a Gilded Age of people living off the teat of the state.

  6. legion says:

    I especially like the reports of unnamed “friends” of DSK back in France attempting to pay off members of the maid’s family (in Africa) to influence her testimony. Apparently trials are only for little people too…

  7. James Joyner says:

    He’s a very rich man who has yet to be found guilty of any crimes. It doesn’t bother me in the least that he has a nice apartment.

  8. James Joyner says:

    He makes a very nice salary from the IMF: $420,930 a year, plus an additional $75,350 for entertaining, as of his appointment in 2007. But he’s also from a wealthy background and his third wife is an heiress–so he’s likely independently wealthy, anyway.

  9. JKB says:

    Oh, all the international org people do very well. Certainly better off US tax dollars than if they’d stayed in their own country’s employ. Best of all, little accountability and lots of third world women.

    Privately they admire it, recognizing it as a description of their own standard of living. They call their many unseen perks “golden handshakes.” At the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, the African Development Bank, and at the IMF, you find extravagantly paid men and women who masquerade as anti-poverty fighters for the Third World. As one World Bank vice president said upon his resignation: “Poverty reduction is the last thing on most World Bank bureaucrats’ minds.”

  10. Moosebreath says:

    Doug,

    “In this case it is a Gilded Age of people living off the teat of the state.”

    Do you actually know that “The Gilded Age” refers to a specific period of American history? If so (or if you didn’t, then after you have familiarized yourself), then I repeat my question, why the sneer with respect to The Gilded Age?

  11. tom p says:

    In this case it is a Gilded Age of people living off the teat of the state.

    It is my understanding that he has to pay for all the conditions of his house arrest, including the armed gaurds. That said, I wonder who the gaurds are loyal to?

  12. Southern Hooser says:

    At least we little people wouldn’t be considered an international flight risk and have to put up a “$6 million bail package.”