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New York court thrown into confusion after judge throws legal lifeline to maid’s lawyer New York prosecutors have dropped sexual assault charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn for allegedly attacking a hotel maid – but he is not yet a completely free man after the judge said an appeal court must decide on the maid’s lawyer’s attempts to have a special prosecutor take over the case. It had been widely anticipated that the case would be thrown out today, but the decision to go to the appeals court caused confusion in the New York courtroom. The judge, Michael Obus, told the packed court he would comply with a request from the prosecution to dismiss the case. “The indictment is dismissed,” he said. Most legal observers think the attempt by lawyers for Nafissatou Diallo will be unsuccessful, and a decision could come as early as later on Tuesday. A largest group of protestors had gathered outside, many of them waving placards and chanting slogans such as “DSK! Shame on you!” as Strauss-Kahn left the courtoom. Michael Greys, co-founder of the group 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement, was furious at the dismissal of the case. “American justice is not blind,” he said. “Race and class still play a part. This was a case of a millionaire against a poor black woman with no education.” Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested in May after Nafissatou Diallo, 32, said the then boss of the International Monetary Fund forced her to perform oral sex when she arrived to clean his suite at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan. The French presidential contender was later arrested on a plane to Europe, where he was planning to hold a series of meetings about the continent’s looming debt crisis. Through his lawyers, he has never contested the fact that a sexual encounter took place but has denied allegations that any act was forced. The millionaire financier is now likely to return to France but faces legal problems in his home country too. French authorities are investigating claims Strauss-Kahn attempted to rape French journalist Tristane Banon in 2003. But the long saga of the criminal case in New York is now almost at an end, following a legal rollercoaster ride that has dominated front pages across the globe. Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr’s office had initially called Diallo’s statement “compelling” and stressed she had provided “very powerful details”. Her story was buttressed by medical evidence; his semen was found on her uniform and her lawyer said doctors had taken photographs of her bruised vagina. But the case started collapsing after prosecutors said that Diallo had lied to them and other US officials about her past, including giving a misleading account of having been gang-raped in her native Guinea. Diallo told interviewers she used the false story to get herself and her daughter a chance at a better life in the US. There were also discrepancies in what happened after the alleged attack. She told a grand jury that she stayed in the hallway outside Strauss-Kahn’s room after the attack, when evidence showed she had actually returned to his and another room before consulting her boss. It then emerged that she had discussed Strauss-Kahn’s wealth in a recorded phone conversation after the supposed attack. In her defence Diallo’s lawyers said prosecutors were misinterpreting the conversation, conducted in Fulani, her native language, and that her account of the assault during the phone call had not differed. But a court document filed on Monday by prosecutors contained a devastating and detailed account of how Diallo had misled investigators into the case. “In virtually every substantive interview with prosecutors, despite entreaties to simply be truthful, she has not been truthful on matters great and small,” the document said. The document said that the cumulative effect of Diallo’s misleading statements would be “devastating” at a jury trial on the case. It added: “If we do not believe her beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so.” But the battle between Diallo and Strauss-Kahn was not fought entirely in the courts and still has likely done lasting damage to his career. As Vance’s team appeared to turn against her, Diallo went public. She gave up her anonymity to air her side of the story in Newsweek and on ABC. Diallo repeated the details of the attack and said that while she had made some mistakes, they shouldn’t dissuade prosecutors from fighting her case. She then sued Strauss-Kahn on 8 August in civil court, a move legal experts said made Vance’s position even more difficult. The Frenchman’s lawyers claimed the suit proved she was out for money. But the civil case is also still ongoing and provides an arena for the two sides to keep fighting. It is legally unaffected by the dropping of criminal charges and has a lesser burden of proof. In order to recover monetary damages from Strauss-Kahn, Diallo’s lawyers will just have to prove it was “more likely than not” that the French politician committed an assault. Ron Kuby, criminal defence and civil right lawyer, said the criminal case had been badly mishandled by both Vance and Diallo. “From the beginning Cyrus Vance did everything wrong that it was possible to do wrong and for the worst possible reasons,” he said. “It was a tragedy of error and hubris,” said Kuby. He said Vance should not have pushed for the judge to deny Strauss-Kahn bail, a decision he said forced the district attorney to make statements for which he did not have the evidence. “It appears that Vance’s own people were telling him to go slow,” he said, referring to reports that veteran sex case investigator Lisa Friel had raised doubts about the case. Friel has announced she is leaving the DA’s office and is looking for a job in the private sector. “There was a rush to judgment, a rush to indict and a rush to detain,” said Kuby. “The only thing left now is who will the DA’s office blame for this debacle, it won’t be themselves. ” However, the embattled DA has got the support of his respected predecessor, Robert Morgenthau, who has defended his actions and decisions in the case. “The most important attribute I looked for in hiring junior prosecutors was a strong ethical sense. The recent actions from the district attorney’s office show me that these attributes are alive and well,” he said. Kuby added that Diallo had proved to be a terrible witness: “Witnesses frequently come with baggage, Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano [crime boss of the Gambino family turned FBI informant] committed 19 murders but he was a fine witness. He was candid. The American justice system loves repentant sinners. What you can’t do is consistently lie about what you did and did not do.” Stuart Slotnick of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, a white-collar crime expert and a former federal prosecutor, said Vance had made the right decision to drop the case. “This is a case about justice,” he said. “The prosecution is the first layer and must decide if this case should move forward.” Slotnick said that as a prosecutor he had defended victims of crimes who had longer police records than those they accused, but Diallo’s tale had simply become indefensible in court to prosecutors because of her unreliability. “Prosecutors are used to people who have lied in the past but when they don’t believe the story they are being told, the right thing to do is drop the case.” Dominique Strauss-Kahn United States France Europe New York Dominic Rushe Paul Harris guardian.co.uk