Diallo and her attorney, Kenneth Thompson, met briefly with representatives of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to discuss the decision not to proceed with the prosecution. Thompson didn't say what had happened inside or reveal what his client was told, but he recited a short statement condemning prosecutors for their handling of the case.
"Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has denied the right of a woman to get justice in a rape case," he said. "He has not only turned his back on this innocent victim. But he has also turned his back on the forensic, medical, and other physical evidence in this case."
Thompson is asking a judge for an order disqualifying the prosecutor's office from handling the case. Diallo is also suing Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, seeking to make him pay financially if not with his freedom, a move that Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said helped erode her credibility.
Strauss-Kahn is scheduled to go before a judge Tuesday. His lawyers, William Taylor and Benjamin Brafman, issued a statement saying that he and his family were grateful for the decision.
The case captured international attention: A promising French presidential contender, known in his homeland as "the Great Seducer," accused of a brutal attack on an African immigrant who had gone to clean his plush suite at the Sofitel hotel.
The stakes were high for Strauss-Kahn - who resigned his IMF post, spent nearly a week behind bars, and then paid possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars for house arrest - as well for Vance, who was handling the biggest case of his 18 months in office.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested after Diallo, 32, said he chased her down and forced her to perform oral sex. Strauss-Kahn denied the allegations, and his lawyers have said anything that happened wasn't forced.
Early on, prosecutors stressed that Diallo had provided "a compelling and unwavering story" replete with "very powerful details" and buttressed by forensic evidence. The police commissioner said seasoned detectives had found her credible.
But then prosecutors said July 1 they'd found the maid had told them falsehoods, including a persuasive but phony account of having been gang-raped in her native Guinea. Prosecutors said in their filing that without other evidence verifying her claim that Strauss-Kahn attacked her, and assaulted her, they weren't willing to base the case entirely on Diallo's truthfulness, when her credibility "cannot withstand the most basic evaluation."
