New York prosecutors ruined a man's career, reputation, and cost him a small fortune. Lucky for him that he has an understanding, intelligent wife or she would have deserted him too. The high profile arrest of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the perp walk that he was subjected to for US media will not be forgotten by him or most of the rest of the world any time soon. They held Strauss-Kahn without bail in Rikers Island and then the media pursued him relentlessly from the moment he was finally granted bail and released.
I discussed this high profile arrest in Most in the US Convict on Charges Alone. Anyone in their right mind would assume that there was enough evidence to charge this man when prosecutors made the decision to do so, but they are worse than even I believed. This says more about the US criminal justice system than I could ever explain on this blog. It is truly one of the worst in the world and these particular prosecutors should be fired.
Cops and prosecutors are supposed to investigate before they arrest, with emphasis on before. What in the hell happened here? Why were they all so eager to jump the gun and put this man through living hell? In my opinion, Strauss-Kahn's attorneys should consider a 42 U.S.C. 1983 action for false arrest.
In my own 42 U.S.C. 1983 case filed against former sheriff Kevin Beary, former MBI director William Lutz, and former MBI agent Brant Rose, the federal judge ruled that while there was not enough evidence to convict, there was probable cause for arrest and therefore dismissal of my suit was granted. I appealed this decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and lost. It is common knowledge (to most attorneys anyway) that the 11thCircuit is unfriendly to adult business plaintiffs in civil suits.
I have discussed the state's main witness in my case too often on this blog to bother again here, but suffice it to say that she was a real piece of work and not believable to anyone in their right mind. Between her (Theresa Isaacs) and the mere existence of a business account with Bank of America wherein escorts deposited fees, that federal judge (Anne Conway) decided that there was indeed probable cause. I must note that Conway made this decision less than a week after a lunch with former Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary, top cop in the US at that time. I will also note that Conway was appointed by a Bush – George H.W. Bush in 1991.
At the time of my prosecution by the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor (OSP), Jeb Bush was the Florida governor. Incidentally, the OSP works directly under the Florida Attorney General (AG); Bob Butterworth at the time that I was arrested. Of course the AG works directly with the governor. No one has even cared to investigate the implications involved in this chain of events. I have said it before and I will say it again: I was not arrested because of anything an escort did. I was arrested because of something an escort did not do. Quite frankly, and as I stated to the jury in testimony, I ain't their mommy, I wasn't present at the call, and I do not know or care what they did or didn't do - that would fall in the category of none of my damn business.
My main point here is that if such flimsy nothing evidence was considered “probable cause” in my case, New York prosecutors must have arrested Dominique Strauss-Kahn on nothing whatsoever except the word of one woman that they neglected to investigate. Now tell me what makes such a system “the best in the world” as so many Americans claim repeatedly... Can anyone explain that absurd distortion of reality?
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