NEW YORK (AP) — The hotel maid who accused former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault plans to personally thank her New York supporters Thursday.
Nafissatou Diallo was scheduled to make a public appearance in Brooklyn, where she’ll be joined by community and religious leaders at a church cultural center.
The 32-year-old immigrant from Guinea went public earlier this week, giving interviews to Newsweek and ABC. It’s nearly unheard of for an alleged sex assault victim to speak publicly before the end of court proceedings, and it’s not clear whether her decision to come forward affected her somewhat tenuous relationship with the prosecutors investigating her case.
Diallo and her attorney met with prosecutors on Wednesday for nearly eight hours, the first time since the Manhattan district attorney’s office publicly announced they had doubts about her credibility after learning of lies on her asylum application and taped recordings between Diallo and a friend in an Arizona immigration jail.
Strauss-Kahn has been charged with attempted rape and other crimes. The French politician has denied Diallo’s accusations. His next court date is Aug. 23, and his attorneys have said they hope the case will be dropped.
Diallo’s attorney Kenneth Thompson said she has been wrongfully portrayed as a money-grubbing opportunist in newspaper accounts of her recorded remarks to the incarcerated friend.
The recordings also established that Diallo recounted the attack to the man during their first conversation, a day after the alleged attack. Her lawyer said that showed that her focus was on what had happened to her, not on his wealth or stature.
“Information has been put out there about Ms. Diallo that now I know was false. She never was scheming to take DSK’s money, and that’s a fact,” said Thompson, referring to Strauss-Kahn by his initials.
Diallo herself didn’t speak to reporters, and the district attorney’s office declined to comment on the meeting.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.