Attempted burglary at ex-IMF head's DC home?

  By ERIC TUCKERGEORGETOWN -- Police responded Thursday morning to the Georgetown home of former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn after an alarm went off inside, but officers said they found no signs of a burglary or a forced entry.

Officers responding to the home with police dogs found the door ajar, but nothing was missing and police ruled out a burglary, said police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump. A maid at the home told police she must have inadvertently left the door open, triggering an alarm, Crump said. Police officials said they were contacted by the alarm company.

Officers left less than two hours after arriving.

A message left with Strauss-Kahn's attorney wasn't immediately returned.

Strauss-Kahn quit his post as IMF chief on May 18 after he was accused of sexually attacking a New York hotel maid. He has denied the charges and is living under house arrest in Manhattan pending his case.

Neighbor Michele Camden, 55, said she had seen a moving truck outside the Strauss-Kahn house Wednesday and assumed that someone must have left a door open. She said she had never seen Strauss-Kahn at the house.

"He's not going to hobnob with someone like us," she said.

The house is located across the street from a park and within short walking distance of the bustling shops and restaurants of the upscale neighborhood.

Camden said neighbors might be prone to whispering some "underhanded comments" about each other, but mostly, "We just leave people alone."

---
Desmond Butler contributed to this story.

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Ex-IMF chief moves to new housing in TriBeCa

  By COLLEEN LONGNEW YORK -- From the outside, it looks like pretty good digs.

Former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn moved late Wednesday from a temporary space in a high-rise to a posh, four-bedroom brick town house in a tony Manhattan neighborhood where he will remain under house arrest as he awaits trial on charges he tried to rape a hotel maid.

The stately red brick town home at 53 Franklin Street in TriBeCa rents for a cool $50,000 a month or, for those looking to settle, is on the market for $13,995,000.

But, despite the home theater, gym, waterfall showers, Japanese paper walls, fireplace and renovations featuring the "finest materials and craftsmanship," Strauss-Kahn is a prisoner, his every movement monitored electronically, armed guards and cameras watching him around the clock. He will be allowed out for court, doctor's visits and religious services. Prosecutors must be notified at least six hours before he goes anywhere, and he can't be out between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Under his terms of house arrest, he can receive up to four visitors at a time besides family.

Security is being managed by Stroz Friedberg, the same company that handled house arrest for disgraced financier Bernard Madoff.

Strauss-Kahn's agreement is expected to cost him about $200,000 a month.

The one-time French presidential contender was smiling as he got into a gray SUV under tight security Wednesday evening. The new space is in Tribeca, about a mile away from where he was staying, according to a person familiar with his housing arrangements. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The building, which has five bathrooms, is on a cobblestone street and is close to the courthouse where Strauss-Kahn will attend hearings.

Attorney William Taylor told reporters Wednesday that his client was "doing fine" under house arrest.

"Not much he can do," Taylor said.

Strauss-Kahn is free on $1 million bail under strict house arrest after prosecutors feared he might flee given his international status and wealth. He spent about a week in jail on Rikers Island after he was arrested May 14 following accusations that he sexually assaulted a hotel maid in his room at the Sofitel near Manhattan's Times Square. His lawyers maintain Strauss-Kahn is not guilty.

Bail plans hit a snag late last week when tenants at the Upper East Side apartment building initially secured for his house arrest refused to accept him because of unwanted media attention. He was briefly housed at a high-rise near Wall Street, where a throng of media has been camped out at the building, broadcasting as his wife, former journalist Anne Sinclair, entered and left the building.

The town house includes jetted tubs and steam showers, an oversized skylight and a fireplace. A large terrace includes potted plants, a gas grill and Japanese paper walls for privacy.

Court officials confirmed that a new location had been agreed upon Wednesday for the economist, but didn't give any details.

Spokesman David Bookstaver said only that the judge had approved the plan. The attorneys in the case filed court papers late in the day, but the judge didn't immediately release them.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office didn't comment.

Strauss-Kahn was pulled from a jetliner bound for Paris after the 32-year-old West African immigrant reported the encounter to hotel staff. She told police she entered his room around noon and he emerged from the bathroom naked, and then chased her around his luxury suite before grabbing her and forcing her to perform oral sex on him.

Earlier this week, people familiar with the investigation told the AP that evidence found on the woman's work clothing matched Strauss-Kahn's DNA.

It was the first forensic evidence to link Strauss-Kahn to the woman - and it's also on track with what his lawyers have suggested would be his defense.

Meanwhile, the district attorney's office has beefed up its team by adding two senior prosecutors to the case against Strauss-Kahn, according to The New York Times. The report, which appeared on the Times website late Wednesday, cited several people briefed on the matter.

Strauss-Kahn resigned nearly a week ago from the IMF, a powerful international institution that lends billions of dollars to troubled countries.

In his resignation he said he wanted to protect the institution.

"To all, I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me," he said.

---
Associated Press writers Karen Zraick and Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.

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DNA evidence said to link ex-IMF leader to NYC maid

  By COLLEEN LONGNEW YORK -- DNA taken from former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn matches material on the uniform of a hotel maid who says he sexually assaulted her, two people familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press.

The two people would not describe the material found on the shirt but said DNA matched a sample from Strauss-Kahn, who submitted to testing after his arrest more than a week ago. He denies the maid's allegations.

Testing was being performed on other items, said the two people, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and spoke to the AP on Monday on condition of anonymity.

During their investigation, authorities cut out a piece of carpet and swabbed sinks and other surfaces in his hotel room.

Investigators told the AP they believed the carpet in the hotel room may contain Strauss-Kahn's semen, spat out after an episode of forced oral sex by the maid.

The forensic evidence is the first to link Strauss-Kahn to the woman - and it's also on track with what his lawyers have suggested would be his defense.

Strauss-Kahn's attorney Benjamin Brafman declined to comment on Monday. At a court hearing last week, he told a judge that forensic evidence developed in the investigation "will not be consistent with a forcible encounter" - leading to speculation that Strauss-Kahn's defense would argue that it was consensual.

New York Police Department spokesman Paul J. Browne and the Manhattan district attorney's office wouldn't comment.

The one-time French presidential contender has been charged with a criminal sex act, attempted rape and sexual abuse and is free on $1 million bail, under house arrest at a lower Manhattan apartment.

He's been accused of attacking the 32-year-old West African immigrant on May 14 in his luxury suite at the Sofitel hotel near Manhattan's Times Square. His lawyers say he's innocent.

Staff at the Sofitel told authorities that the 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn had made passes at them the day before the attack was reported, including flirting with a clerk and calling another employee to ask her up to his room, according to a third person with direct knowledge of investigators' interviews with staff.

Strauss-Kahn had flirted with one female staff member who accompanied him to his suite to make sure his accommodations were satisfactory after he checked in on May 13, the person said. Later, he phoned the desk clerk who had checked him in, asking her if she would like to get together with him when she got off duty, the person said. The desk clerk refused, saying she was not allowed to socialize with the VIP guest, the person said.

That person also wasn't authorized to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

On Monday, lawyers for Strauss-Kahn continued to search for new housing for their client as he awaits trial. His bail agreement hit a snag late last week after tenants at the Upper East Side apartment building chosen for his house arrest refused to allow him, citing unwanted media attention.

Strauss-Kahn has been staying at a temporary location under watch by armed guards with Stroz Friedberg, the same company that guarded disgraced financier Bernard Madoff. It wasn't clear when he would be moved. French and U.S. media have been staking out the building where Strauss-Kahn spent the weekend after he was released from his Rikers Island jail cell.

He resigned last Wednesday from the IMF.

His attorneys have described Strauss-Kahn as a loving father and family man. They say his actions after the attack was reported are not those of a guilty man eager for a quick escape. He left the hotel, had lunch and then phoned later to ask if he'd left anything behind. When hotel staff said he had left his cellphone, he told them exactly where he was: at John F. Kennedy International Airport on a flight bound for Paris. Authorities pulled him from the jetliner.

---
Associated Press writer Tom Hays contributed to this report.

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Ex-IMF chief gets $1M bail in NYC sex assault case

  By JENNIFER PELTZ and TOM HAYSNEW YORK -- The court discourse surrounding former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is less than a week old but has already turned into a case of invoking the infamous.

Prosecutors have brought up Roman Polanski, the French filmmaker whom U.S. authorities pursued for decades after he jumped bail in a 1977 child sex case. Defense lawyers have mentioned Bernard Madoff, the financier who was freed on $10 million bail before admitting he was behind a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. And that's in just two court dates discussing whether to allow bail for Strauss-Kahn, the onetime potential French presidential contender charged with sexually attacking a New York City hotel maid. He denies the allegations.

After Strauss-Kahn spent nearly a week in police custody and then jail, a judge agreed Thursday to free him on $1 million cash bail plus an additional $5 million bond - provided he's confined to a New York apartment, under armed guard and electronic monitoring.

He wasn't immediately released from the city's bleak Rikers Island jail, where he had been kept in protective custody and on a suicide watch. But his lawyers expect he'll get out Friday, after he posts the bond and authorities review the security arrangements involved in his house arrest.

The 62-year-old French economist and diplomat briefly wore an expression of relief after state Supreme Court Justice Michael J.

Obus announced his decision in a packed courtroom. Later, Strauss-Kahn blew a kiss toward his wife.

Strauss-Kahn didn't speak during the court proceeding. But as he headed back to jail for what he hoped would be a final night, lawyer William W. Taylor called the bail decision "a great relief for the family" and said Strauss-Kahn's mindset was "much better now than before we started."

The ex-IMF head is accused of attacking a 32-year-old housekeeper Saturday in his $3,000-a-night hotel suite. The West African immigrant told police he chased her down a hallway in the suite, forced her to perform oral sex and tried to remove her stockings.

"The proof against him is substantial. It is continuing to grow every day as the investigation continues," Manhattan assistant district attorney John "Artie" McConnell told the judge Thursday as prosecutors announced that Strauss-Kahn had been indicted on charges including attempted rape and a criminal sex act.

The indictment, a crucial procedural step in a felony case, marked a grand jury's "determination that the evidence supports the commission of non-consensual, forced sexual acts," District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said. Strauss-Kahn, whose lawyers have suggested evidence won't support a forcible encounter, is due back in court June 6.

The bail decision came less than a day after Strauss-Kahn resigned as managing director of the IMF, the powerful organization that makes emergency loans to countries in financial crisis.

In his resignation letter, he denied the allegations against him but said he would quit in order to "protect this institution which I have served with honor and devotion" and to "devote all my strength, all my time and all my energy to proving my innocence."

Prosecutors had argued against his release, citing the violent nature of the alleged offenses and saying his wealth and international connections would make it easy for him to flee.

At his arraignment Monday, a prosecutor suggested that if Strauss-Kahn were released and ran, he could end up "just like Roman Polanski," whom the Swiss government declined to extradite last year in the child sex case in the U.S. in which he had jumped bail decades ago.

On Thursday, defense lawyers offered a notorious example of their own: Madoff, the fraudulent financier who stole billions of dollars from investors. Before Madoff pleaded guilty in the federal case and was sentenced to 150 years in prison in 2009, he was freed on $10 million bail, under house arrest and private guard provided by the same firm Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have proposed to monitor him. Taylor cited Madoff as he noted in court that "there have been other high-profile cases where (defendants) have been released."

Taylor called the proposed arrangement "the most restrictive possible conditions," although he suggested few precautions were necessary.

"In our view, no bail is required to confirm Mr. Strauss-Kahn's appearance. He is an honorable man. He will appear in this court and anywhere else the court directs, and he has only one interest at this time, and that is to clear his name," Taylor said.

A different judge had ordered Strauss-Kahn held without bail Monday; his lawyers subsequently added home confinement to their bail proposal. His wife, the French television journalist Anne Sinclair, has rented a Manhattan apartment for the couple, Taylor said.

Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Obus said the conditions played a major role in his decision to allow bail, but he warned Strauss-Kahn he might reconsider "if there is the slightest problem with your compliance."

Strauss-Kahn nodded in response. Dressed in a gray suit and an open-necked blue dress shirt, he had arrived stony-faced, though he turned to give a quick smile to his wife and daughter Camille, seated in the audience along with about 100 reporters. They and other journalists, lining a sidewalk below, formed the biggest media throng at the courthouse at least since Mark David Chapman was arrested in 1980 for killing John Lennon, court spokesman David Bookstaver said.

In France, a Socialist lawmaker and longtime Strauss-Kahn ally, Francois Pupponi, expressed relief at the decision to allow the former finance minister to leave jail. "There's finally a bit of good news in a terrible week," he said on BFM-TV. "We were no longer expecting good news."

The political wrangling over who will succeed Strauss-Kahn at the IMF already has begun. European officials, including Germany's chancellor, the European Commission and France's finance minister, have argued that his replacement should be a European.

Some authorities from China and Brazil have said it is time to break Europe's traditional dominance over the position and appoint someone from a developing nation. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has asked for an "open process," without mentioning specific candidates.

---
Associated Press writers Karen Zraick, Colleen Long and David B. Caruso in New York and Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed to this report.

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