NEW YORK (Reuters) – A lawyer for the hotel maid who accused former International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her in a New York hotel said on Thursday he planned to file a civil lawsuit soon.
Kenneth Thompson, the lawyer for Nafissatou Diallo, did not specify to reporters at a press conference exactly when a civil lawsuit against Strauss-Kahn would be filed.
"I said soon. Soon is soon," he told reporters.
Diallo made an emotional public appeal at a highly unusual press conference for people to believe her story. The criminal case has teetered for weeks since prosecutors disclosed they had uncovered several discrepancies in Diallo's account of her past.
Diallo told reporters she cannot stop crying and that she wants no other woman to suffer like her, first at the hands of a powerful attacker and then by having her story questioned.
"I am going through a lot. My daughter, we are going through a lot. We are crying everyday. We can't sleep," an emotional and tearful Diallo said.
"A lot of things they say about me are not true," the woman, called "Nafi" by her friends, said.
The 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn faces criminal charges including attempted rape, sexual assault and sexual abuse.
Strauss-Kahn, who was expected to be a contender to be the next French president, denies the charges and contends any sex that afternoon with Diallo was consensual.
His lawyers have labeled the Diallo's effort to speak out as a last-ditch effort by her and her lawyers to extract money from the former IMF chief.
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