New York (CNN) — A New York judge dismissed sexual assault charges against former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss Kahn at the prosecutor’s request Tuesday.
But Judge Michael Obus delayed implementing his order to give attorneys for Strauss-Khan’s accuser time to appeal his denial of a request for a special prosecutor in the case.
A grand jury indicted Strauss-Kahn in May over allegations he sexually assaulted hotel housekeeper Nafissatou Diallo in his New York hotel suite.
But in July, prosecutors began to back off the case, asking Obus to release Strauss-Kahn from house arrest after information surfaced that they said called Diallo’s credibility into question.
On Monday, prosecutors asked Obus to dismiss the charges entirely, while Diallo’s attorney filed a motion asking that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance be disqualified from the case and that a special prosecutor be appointed.
Obus rejected the request from Diallo’s attorneys, then approved the request to dismiss charges.
In a statement, Strauss-Kahn thanked his attorneys and Obus for his decision.
“These past two and a half months have been a nightmare for me and my family,” he said, adding that he was “obviously gratified that the District Attorney agreed with my lawyers that this case had to be dismissed.”
Strauss-Kahn’s attorneys said in a statement Monday after prosecutors filed their request that it vindicates their consistent claim that their client is innocent.
“Mr. Strauss-Kahn and his family are grateful that the District Attorney’s office took our concerns seriously and concluded on its own that this case cannot proceed further,” attorneys William W. Taylor and Benjamin Brafman said in a statement.
One of Diallo’s attorneys, in a Paris news conference before the hearing, said dismissing the charges would be a travesty.
“For the district attorney to now dismiss this case or seek to dismiss this case and turn his back on this victim because of so-called credibility issues is an affront not only on Ms. Diallo but an affront on all victims and sexual victims who come forward in the future,” attorney Douglas Wigdor said.
Prosecutors filed a “recommendation for dismissal” in the case Monday, noting more questions about Diallo’s credibility.
“The nature and number of the complainant’s falsehoods leave us unable to credit her version of events beyond a reasonable doubt, whatever the truth may be about the encounter between the complainant and the defendant,” the document states. “If we do not believe her beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so.”
Prosecutors voiced concern that the case appeared to rest exclusively on the housekeeper’s account, predicting her “falsehoods” would be “devastating” if revealed during a trial. They claim she “has not been truthful in matters great and small,” including lying about a “gang rape, as well as other details about her life in (her native) Guinea.”
Diallo lied about the specifics of her whereabouts after the incident and past details of an asylum application and information on tax forms, prosecutors said.
She also admitted lying on the asylum application about having been a victim of a gang rape, even providing details of an attack and later admitting it never happened, according to prosecutors.
