Dominique Strauss-Kahn maid lives in apartment block for HIV sufferers
The hotel chambermaid who alleges she was sexually attacked by Dominique Strauss-Kahn lives in an apartment block used exclusively for people with HIV or Aids, it emerged on Wednesday.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is being held at New York's Rikers Island jail in advance of his next court hearing on Friday Photo: REUTERS
The maid, who works at the Manhattan Sofitel, claims that on Saturday the IMF managing director locked her in his $3,000-a-night suite, attempted to rape her and forced her to give him oral sex.
The maid was on Wednesday night due to testify before a New York grand jury, which is considering whether or not there is enough evidence to prosecute Mr Strauss-Kahn. If it decides there is, the grand jury, which sits in secret, will issue an indictment that will form the basis of the prosecution in Mr Strauss-Kahn's trial.
The 32-year-old Guinean, who is not being named due to the nature of the alleged attack, has lived in an apartment in The Bronx, the northernmost borough of New York City, since January this year.
The property, where she lives with her 15-year-old daughter, is rented out by the Harlem United Community Aids Center, which provides services including housing to local HIV-positive people.
Typically an adult in the household must be HIV-positive or have Aids to be eligible for one of the group's properties. The maid lived in another Harlem United property from 2008 to this year.
A spokesman for Harlem United Community Aids Center said: "We have no comment whatsoever", and declined to discuss the rules on who is eligible for the group's properties.
A spokesman for Mr Shapiro declined to comment. An employee at Chaim Gross, the company that manages the building, said: "No one is available" and hung up the phone.
Mr Shapiro described the maid, who is staying in an undisclosed location, as a "simple woman, with little education", who survives from "pay cheque to pay cheque".
She was given asylum in the US seven years ago and "respects the fact that the laws exist in this country", the attorney said.
"She came from a country in which poor people had little or no justice," Mr Shapiro said. "She's now in a country where the poor have the same rights as do the rich and the powerful," he said, reiterating that his client had "no agenda" except to "tell the truth".
Mr Shapiro, who has said the maid's world was "turned upside down", said she only learned who her alleged attacker was a "day or two" after the alleged incident. He described her as "scared and incredulous".
Now, though, she has difficulty avoiding his image on television and in other media. "She's bombarded with this guy and she can't escape him," Mr Shapiro said.
Earlier this week the maid was taken back by investigators to the suite, on the hotel's 28th floor, and is said to have pointed to two places where she claims she remembered spitting during the alleged assault.
An 11'-by-4' section of rug is said to have been removed from the suite for testing, while a sink in one of the two bathrooms is being examined for possible DNA evidence.
Mr Strauss-Kahn was denied bail and is being held at New York's Rikers Island jail in advance of his next court hearing on Friday.
The IMF chief is being held in a one-man cell and is on suicide watch after he "did or said something" to alarm officials during a mental health evaluation, the correction officers' union said.
His lawyers say he denies the charges and that forensic evidence will "not be consistent with a forcible encounter". Mr Shapiro said: "There is nothing consensual about what took place in that hotel room."
A spokesman for Mr Shapiro declined to comment. An employee at Chaim Gross, the company that manages the building, said: "No one is available" and hung up the phone.
Mr Shapiro described the maid, who is staying in an undisclosed location, as a "simple woman, with little education", who survives from "pay cheque to pay cheque".
She was given asylum in the US seven years ago and "respects the fact that the laws exist in this country", the attorney said.
"She came from a country in which poor people had little or no justice," Mr Shapiro said. "She's now in a country where the poor have the same rights as do the rich and the powerful," he said, reiterating that his client had "no agenda" except to "tell the truth".
Mr Shapiro, who has said the maid's world was "turned upside down", said she only learned who her alleged attacker was a "day or two" after the alleged incident. He described her as "scared and incredulous".
Now, though, she has difficulty avoiding his image on television and in other media. "She's bombarded with this guy and she can't escape him," Mr Shapiro said.
Earlier this week the maid was taken back by investigators to the suite, on the hotel's 28th floor, and is said to have pointed to two places where she claims she remembered spitting during the alleged assault.
An 11'-by-4' section of rug is said to have been removed from the suite for testing, while a sink in one of the two bathrooms is being examined for possible DNA evidence.
Mr Strauss-Kahn was denied bail and is being held at New York's Rikers Island jail in advance of his next court hearing on Friday.
The IMF chief is being held in a one-man cell and is on suicide watch after he "did or said something" to alarm officials during a mental health evaluation, the correction officers' union said.
His lawyers say he denies the charges and that forensic evidence will "not be consistent with a forcible encounter". Mr Shapiro said: "There is nothing consensual about what took place in that hotel room."
