Paris prosecutor to look into new Strauss-Kahn case (Reuters)

PARIS/NEWYORK (Reuters) – The Paris prosecutor's office said on Friday it has opened a preliminary inquiry into a complaint filed by French writer Tristane Banon alleging an attempted rape by former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The case throws up a new headache for the Frenchman, who is in New York fighting sex assault charges that brought his career at the IMF crashing to an end and have likely killed his chances of running for French president next year.

Strauss-Kahn is expected to counter claim against Banon -- a routine procedure in such a case in France. His lawyers declined to comment on Friday.

Banon, 32, filed her complaint earlier this week over an incident she alleges occurred in 2003 when she went to interview the former French finance minister in an otherwise empty Paris apartment when she was in her early twenties.

Her lawyer David Koubbi said on Thursday there was "physical" evidence to back up the case, although he declined to say if that included text messages or recordings.

Strauss-Kahn had been the favorite to unseat conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy by running for the Socialist Party in France's 2012 election until his arrest in New York in May threw his political future into question.

That case appeared to weaken last week when prosecutors said they had doubts about the credibility of the hotel chambermaid who has alleged Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her when she went in to clean his room.

A court released Strauss-Kahn from house arrest and signs that the case may be unraveling raised the prospect that he could return to France in the months ahead and take a role supporting the left's election campaign.

Yet a person close to the case told Reuters U.S. prosecutors have no current plans to drop the charges and want at least two or three more weeks to investigate Strauss-Kahn, 62, and his 32-year-old accuser. The source also said that no plea deal was sought in a meeting this week with Strauss-Kahn's lawyers.

FRANCE IN DISARRAY

Strauss-Kahn's arrest in New York sent shockwaves around the world and threw the French left into turmoil as it scrambled to come up with a Plan B strategy for winning the presidency after three terms in opposition.

The scandal has also set off a wave of soul-searching in France, where the media has kept quiet for years about a culture of flirting and extramarital affairs in political circles that critics say risks letting sexual predators go unnoticed.

Banon is a journalist and author of three books, including a novel that gives a fictionalized account of the alleged incident with Strauss-Kahn. She also gave a graphic account of the alleged assault in a televised talk show in 2007 with his name bleeped out, but had never taken legal action until this week.

Attempted rape carries a penalty of up to 15 years in France.

For Banon's case to stand up, it would need evidence of attempted rape rather than just sexual assault, given that in France attempted rape charges can be brought as long as 10 years after the event but assault charges expire after three years.

While Strauss-Kahn's allies have rallied round him from the day of his arrest, French voters no longer see him as presidential material -- even if many have decried the way he was paraded in front of U.S. cameras unshaven and handcuffed.

An opinion poll carried out in the wake of Banon's complaint this week found two thirds of respondents did not want Strauss-Kahn to be a candidate in the 2012 election and an even larger share did not believe he would now run.

In New York, a person familiar with Wednesday's talks between defense and prosecution lawyers told Reuters that while Strauss-Kahn and his team feel the "tide has turned" in their favor, his lawyers are not assuming the case is over.

The source said there was increasing suspicion on Strauss-Kahn's side that his accuser targeted him for some kind of scheme because his picture had been posted by hotel management to notify staff that a VIP was on the premises.

While investigating her story and background, prosecutors reportedly turned up a recorded conversation between the maid and a male friend detained in an Arizona jail in which she allegedly indicated that she knew what she was doing and that Strauss-Kahn was someone with a lot of money.

The maid has alleged that Strauss-Kahn forced himself on her violently as she entered his luxury suite to clean it, but her credibility was thrown into question when prosecutors said they believed she had told authorities numerous lies.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in New York; writing by Catherine Bremer; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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Accuser seeks special prosecutor for Strauss-Kahn (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lawyers representing the woman who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault have asked the leading New York prosecutor to withdraw from the case and appoint a special prosecutor.

In a letter to District Attorney Cyrus Vance, the lawyers accused a prosecutor in Vance's office of leaking damaging information about Strauss-Kahn's accuser.

A spokeswoman for Vance had no immediate comment.

"District Attorney Vance, we ask in earnest that your office voluntarily recuse itself from the Strauss-Kahn case and that you appoint a special prosecutor," Kenneth Thompson, the lawyer for the 32-year-old hotel maid from Guinea, wrote in a letter dated Wednesday.

Recusals are rare and this one was not likely to succeed, legal experts said.

Reuters obtained a copy of the letter after defense lawyers for Strauss-Kahn met with prosecutors from Vance's office for nearly two hours on Wednesday as the case against him appeared in serious jeopardy.

Both sides declined to give any details of the meeting. The New York Times had reported they would discuss whether the charges could be resolved by a dismissal or plea agreement.

The case was thrown into jeopardy last week when prosecutors discovered the accuser had lied about being gang-raped in her home country in her application for U.S. asylum and changed details of her story about what she did after her encounter with Strauss-Kahn in a luxury suite.

Thompson has said the woman had made mistakes in the past but insisted she was sexually assaulted by Strauss-Kahn, and that evidence existed to prove it.

'DAMAGING LEAKS'

Thompson accused Vance's chief assistant, Daniel Alonso, of planting "damaging leaks" in the media that undermined his client's character and the charges against Strauss-Kahn.

He faulted prosecutors for never handing over to him an audio recording of a telephone call his client made to her boyfriend in an Arizona prison while leaking a description of part of the call to The New York Times.

Thompson referred to a specific quote in which an unnamed law enforcement official spoke to the Times about that phone conversation.

"She says words to the effect of, 'Don't worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I am doing,'" the Times reported.

Thompson said Alonso used "virtually the same words" in relating the call to him hours before it appeared in the Times.

The letter also complained about the office refusing to fully deny a story by the New York Post that his client may be a prostitute. Thompson filed a libel suit against the Post about that.

"Such apparent leaks by members of your office is, without question, an abrogation of the duties and responsibilities of a prosecutor," the letter said.

The letter also complained about one of the prosecutors having "screamed at and disrespected the victim while she met with them."

Law experts say the request was unlikely to succeed.

"It's a silly request," said Columbia Law Professor Daniel Richman, who said he believes Thompson's letter has more to do with public relations than with a legitimate demand. "It makes for a nice sound bite."

Recusals are rare and usually occur when there is a personal stake in the outcome for members of the prosecutor's office.

"Recusals are unusual, but not unprecedented," said Paul Shechtman, a defense lawyer and former prosecutor. "This isn't the occasion for one."

Shechtman said allegations of leaks to the media, even if true, are probably not enough to result in a recusal.

"Whatever you think about leaks, if they were grounds for recusal, we would have a great number of recusal motions," he said.

Benjamin Brafman, Strauss-Kahn's defense lawyer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Writing by Daniel Trotta, Additional reporting Joseph Ax and Christine Kearney; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Casey Anthony weeps as prosecutor calls her a liar (AP)

ORLANDO, Fla. – Casey Anthony briefly broke down crying Sunday as prosecutors told jurors during closing arguments that she murdered her 2-year-old daughter Caylee because the child prevented her from having a relationship with a club promoter.

Prosecutor Jeff Ashton said Anthony wanted a relationship with her boyfriend, to go out with her friends and to live the carefree life she had lived before Caylee's birth.

"Something needed to be sacrificed, that something was either the life she wanted or the life thrust upon her. She chose to sacrifice her child," Ashton said during his 90-minute argument.

Prosecutors contend Caylee was suffocated with duct tape by a mother who then crafted elaborate lies to mislead everyone from investigators to her own parents. Defense attorneys countered that the toddler accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool, and that her seemingly carefree mother in fact was hiding emotional distress caused by alleged sexual abuse from her father. Her father has denied that claim.

Judge Belvin Perry ruled Sunday morning that there was no evidence of such a claim and that the defense could not allude to it in its closing argument. But Perry did say the defense could again present the drowning theory because there "is a reasonable inference that can be drawn" to suggest it.

Defense attorney Jose Baez began his closing argument by telling the jurors that they have more questions than answers, including the biggest: How did Caylee die? Neither prosecutors nor the defense have offered firm proof of how Caylee died.

"It can never be proven," he said. That by itself should give them reasonable doubt that Anthony killed her daughter, he said.

He said the prosecutors' case is so weak they tried to portray Anthony as "a lying, no-good slut."

"Then you'll start to look at this evidence in a different light, you'll start to, wait a minute, maybe I'm seeing something that's not there and start to actually discriminate against her rather than give her the standard that is afforded to each and every citizen in our country," Baez said, noting that the state must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Earlier during Ashton's argument, Anthony appeared mostly stone-faced for about the first 45 minutes, but then she closed her eyes and rested her chin on her hand. She began to cry when Ashton said that the story that Caylee drowned was also false.

Ashton said Caylee's death wasn't an accident because three pieces of duct tape were placed on her face — one on the mouth, one on the nose and one over those to be "thorough."

The jury is expected to begin deliberating after the defense finishes its closing argument. Perry said those deliberations will continue Monday on the July Fourth holiday if necessary.

The case has played out on national TV since Caylee's disappearance in the summer of 2008 and continued through her mother's trial, with spectators traveling from all over the U.S. to jockey for coveted seats in the courtroom gallery.

Ashton began his closing argument by showing a video of Anthony playing with Caylee, causing Anthony to apparently choke back tears. But she quickly regained her composure.

He then told the jury that Anthony worried Caylee was getting to the age where she would have told Anthony's parents that the woman was spending her days and nights with her boyfriend — not going to work and leaving Caylee with a nanny.

"Casey is very bright," Ashton said. "Her lies are very detailed. ... But when Casey wants to do what Casey wants to do, she finds a way."

He then described the lies Anthony told her parents, George and Cindy Anthony, about why she couldn't come home and why she couldn't produce Caylee after the toddler was last seen June 16, 2008. That she was with a nanny named Zanny, a woman who doesn't exist. That Anthony and her daughter were spending time in Jacksonville with a rich boyfriend who doesn't exist. That Zanny had been hospitalized after an out-of-town traffic accident and that they were spending time with her.

It only fell apart, Ashton said, a month later when a junk yard told George and Cindy Anthony their daughter's car had been towed. When they picked it up, they discovered a foul odor — George Anthony, a former police officer, and the tow yard operator said it smelled like human decomposition.

Cindy Anthony then tracked down her daughter. When she couldn't produce Caylee, her parents called police. Casey Anthony then told investigators she worked at Universal Studios theme park as an event planner. She went so far as to take them there, talk her way past security, take them to an office building and only give up the lie as she was walking down the hall.

Ashton then attacked the defense contention that Caylee drowned and that George Anthony helped Casey Anthony cover it up. No one faced with an accidental drowning would do that instead of calling 911, Ashton said.

"It is a trip down a rabbit hole into a bizarre world where men who love their granddaughters find them drowned and do nothing," Ashton said. "Where men who love their granddaughters take an accident, a completely innocent act, and make it look like a murder for no reason. A world where a man who buries his pets will take the granddaughter who was the love of his life and throw her in a swamp."

Casey Anthony has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. She could face a possible death sentence or life in prison if convicted of that charge.

Anthony also is charged with aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and four counts of providing false information to law enforcement. The child abuse and manslaughter charges each carry a 30-year prison term if convicted.

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