Dominique Strauss-Kahn Gets Bail
A judge granted Dominique Strauss-Kahn bail on Thursday, allowing the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund to be freed from Rikers Island to stay in a Manhattan apartment while his sexual assault case is pending.
Not entirely surprisingly, a New York Judge has released former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn on bail, although the conditions are quite strict:
A judge granted Dominique Strauss-Kahn bail on Thursday, allowing the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund to be freed from Rikers Island to stay in a Manhattan apartment while his sexual assault case is pending.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers filed a new application for his release in State Supreme Court on Wednesday night, reiterating their client’s earlier offer to put up $1 million cash bail and wear an ankle monitor. The new application also said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn would remain under 24-hour home confinement in the apartment recently rented by his wife, with an armed guard posted outside — presumably to ensure he stays inside. He also submitted a waiver of extradition, should the American authorities need to get him back from France.
The judge, Justice Michael J. Obus of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, agreed to those conditions, also requiring $5 million bond to be posted.
After setting Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s bail conditions, Justice Obus issued him a stern warning.
“Mr. Strauss-Kahn, I assume you’re going to be posting this in due course,” he said. “You will be subject to and you will have the benefit of the protection of the criminal court system, the criminal justice system of this state and this country. I expect you will be here.”
If there is the “slightest problem with your compliance,” Justice Obus added, he could change the conditions of the bail and could even withdraw it.
Before the judge gave his decision, prosecutors announced that a grand jury indicted Mr. Strauss-Kahn on charges related to the alleged sexual assault of a hotel housekeeper at the Sofitel New York.
The charges included several first-degree felony counts, including committing a criminal sex act, attempted rape and sexual abuse; the most serious charges carry 25-year prison terms.
Again, not entirely surprising. One assumes that DSK’s lawyers have already told him not to even think about playing games with the bail conditions.
If DSK makes it back to France somehow, they’ll find a way around or will ignore that waiver of extradition. They played games with Ira Einhorn for years.