Rape Case Against|Strauss-Kahn Dismissed

(CN) - New York prosecutors moved to dismiss the sexual assault indictment against former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn after concluding that his accuser's account of the assault was not credible.

In a recommendation for dismissal, prosecutors said the hotel maid who accused Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault is not a credible witness because of the inconsistencies in her account.

To prove that Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted Nafissatou Diallo, prosecutors had to prove that he "engaged in a sexual act ... using forcible compulsion and without her consent."

Prosecutors say an "extensive investigation" showed that Strauss-Kahn "engaged in a hurried sexual encounter with the complainant, but it does not independently establish her claim of a forcible, nonconsensual encounter."

Strauss-Kahn was taken into custody on May 14 and arraigned two days later. He pleaded not guilty to a grand jury indictment on June 6, and his attorney served the prosecutors with a demand for discovery.

Diallo told New York Police Department detectives and prosecutors that Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from the hotel shower while she was cleaning the suite and grabbed her breasts.

She said he then forced her onto the bed, tried to force his penis into her mouth and pushed her down a narrow hallway where he forcefully grabbed her genital area. He then allegedly forced his penis in her mouth again and ejaculated.

Diallo said she spit Strauss-Kahn's semen onto the carpet and fled to the end of the hallway.

In the course of the investigation, Diallo changed her account of the incident several times. On July 27, she denied having made statements to the prosecutor, claiming that they were either mistranslated or misunderstood.

Diallo also admitted that she fabricated a story about being gang raped years earlier by soldiers in her native Guinea and that she had made false statements under oath.

"The complainant has been persistently, and at times inexplicably, untruthful in describing matters of both great and small significance," Assistant District Attorneys Joan Illuzzi-Orbon and Artie McConnell wrote in their recommendation to dismiss.

The prosecutors concluded that Diallo and Strauss-Kahn did have a sexual encounter, but the physical evidence did not corroborate Diallo's account.

Diallo filed civil sexual assault charges against Strauss-Kahn several weeks ago, and she sued the New York Post for defamation last month.

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