The latest disclosures/leaks tending to undercut the credibility of the victim in the notorious DSK sexual assault case are nearly all originating from the Office of the Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr. As such, they are the sort of leaks and disclosures that usually presage the outright dismissal of the criminal case itself.
Here's the dynamic: as facts develop, the headline-grabbing case that headline-grabbing prosecutors thought would be a "lay down" morphs into a very difficult case that may actually have to be tried with uncertain results against a well-financed defendant with better and scrappier lawyers than the DAs office can muster. As reality dawns, the bowels of politically ambitious boy and girl prosecutors congeal. With visions of Marcia Clark, Chris Darden, and perhaps even Robert Nifong dancing in their heads, the cry goes up: What to do?
The answer is obvious: just "dirty-up" the single-mom immigrant from Guinea by leaking damaging information about her a lap-dog reporter or two (yes, they do exist) and, once she becomes a full-fledged scapegoat, dismiss the indictment. Nolo problemo.
It appears from my reading that this is what is happening, so that we have now reached the stage in this bedroom farce known in France as L'Affaire DSK" where any criticism one makes against anyone involved has validity.
DSK is clearly no day at the beach. As even French journalists have been forced to admit, the man once described as "Le Grand Seducteur" is, in reality, a highly-functioning pervert whose whose criminal sexual activity (if we are to believe the progressive revelations of female colleagues) cut a pervasive swath through French womanhood while his enablers in the French press looked the other way. Sound familiar? Well, that past has finally caught up with him, as it usually does (viz. Spitzer, Weiner, Clinton, JFK, and on and on). Even if vindicated in the Manhattan case, DSK is more in need of a clinical psychiatrist than a running mate. If French Socialists are so desperate as to consider accepting DSK back into a leadership position, then Socialism is even more bankrupt than I thought, and may even qualify for IMF assistance.
As to the government's principal complaining witness, she appears to be something less than the tower of integrity in whom the prosecution and police reposed such implicit trust when they made their high-profile arrest of DSK on the tarmac back in May. Worse, she is beginning to resemble the Duke lacrosse accuser. This is not to say that she is not a victim. Her description of the actual assault at the Sofitel may be accurate and unwavering. Even if it is not, liars are entitled to be protected against rape. But this immigrant from Guinea who consorts with criminals and other unsavory characters is clearly not the ideal rape victim upon whom to build a case against a high-profile defendant and his "dream team" defenders.
Which brings me to District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. This boy-prosecutor (how many cases has he tried?) has two and only two honorable choices: he should either man up and take this challenging case to trial (lead-chairing the case himself, rather than relying upon some poor assistant DA to clean up his mess for him), or else Vance should simply dismiss the case and resign. There really is no middle ground. That is because one of two things is true: either the DA's office under Vance blundered monumentally, perhaps even to the point of prosecutorial misconduct, in its "fire, ready, aim" approach to this case, or else it did not.
If the former, Vance and his office have worked irreparable harm upon a man who, though a manifest pig, is, despite that, entitled to justice and due process in this case.
If the latter, then the victim deserves her day in court, and the public as well deserves to have vindicated its right to be protected from such depredations as DSK is accused of perpetrating. As pigs are entitled to justice, so too are liars and less than perfect victims.
By the way, the conning, spinning, unrealistic and self-serving statements coming out of the DAs office by such as girl prosecutor Joan Illuzi-Orbon ("It would have to be that I believed every word that came out of her [the victim's] mouth [before taking the case to trial] ...." is nonsense. By that test few cases would ever see a jury.
Bulletin to Team Vance: There are rarely perfect victims and there are rarely perfect defendants. Dismiss the case, or dismiss yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment