IMF chief expected to plead not guilty

Associated Press

NEW YORK

The arraignment for the International Money Fund head who’s accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid has been delayed.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer says his client agreed to an examination requested by prosecutors to obtain evidence in the case.

William Taylor says an arraignment set for Sunday night will now happen today.

Police arrested Strauss-Kahn early Sunday on charges including attempted rape. A 32-year-old maid at the Sofitel hotel says that the 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her when she came into his hotel suite.

Attorney Benjamin Brafman says Strauss-Kahn will ‘’vigorously” defend himself against the charges. The IMF head also is a leading contender for the French presidency.

Strauss-Kahn’s reputation with women earned him the nickname “the great seducer,” and not even an affair with a subordinate could knock the International Monetary Fund leader off a political path pointed in the direction of the French presidency. All that changed with charges that he sexually assaulted a maid in his hotel room, a case that generated shock and revulsion, especially in his home country.

Police said the maid picked Strauss-Kahn out of a lineup. Unless the charges are quickly dropped, they could destroy his chances in a presidential race that is just starting to heat up.

The IMF, which plays a key role in efforts to control the European debt crisis, named an acting leader and said it remains “fully functioning and operational” despite the arrest of its managing director.

Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, told The Associated Press that his client will plead not guilty. He and another lawyer went in and out of the Harlem police precinct where Strauss-Kahn was being held early Sunday afternoon, and declined to answer reporters’ questions until the arraignment, which had been expected later Sunday.

“He denies all the charges against him,” Brafman said. “And that’s all I can really say right now.”

Brafman is one of the city’s most high-profile defense attorneys. His clients have included mobsters and such celebrities as Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and ex-New York Giants star Plaxico Burress.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested less than four hours after the alleged assault, plucked from first class on a Paris-bound Air France flight that was just about to leave the gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The white-haired, well-dressed, thrice-married father of four was alone when he checked into the luxury Sofitel hotel, not far from Manhattan’s Times Square, on Friday afternoon, police said. It wasn’t clear why he was in New York. The IMF is based in Washington, and he had been due in Germany on Sunday to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The 32-year-old maid told authorities that when she entered his spacious, $3,000-a-night suite early Saturday afternoon, she thought it was unoccupied. Instead, Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where he sexually assaulted her, New York Police Department spokesman Paul J. Browne said.