BREAKING: Case against Strauss-Kahn near collapse, law-enforcement officials say. NYT exclusive.

June 30, 2011

soupsoup:

Prosecutors from the office of District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who initially were emphatic about the strength of the case and the account of the victim, plan to tell the court on Friday that they “have problems with the case” based on what their investigators have discovered, and will disclose more details of their findings to the defense.

“It is a mess, a mess on both sides,” the official said.

According to the two law enforcement officials, the woman had a phone conversation with an incarcerated man within a day of her encounter with Mr. Strauss Kahn in which she discussed the possible benefits of pursing the charges against him. The conversation was recorded.

If this is the case, and the D.A.’s office doesn’t have the case it thought it did, this is two really big blows to Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan District attorney. Last month, the D.A.’s office lost a different rape case, involving two NYPD officers who were acquitted on rape and felony charges of an accused woman (even though they were still found guilty of “official misconduct for entering the woman’s apartment while on duty when they had no official reason to do so.”

Vance took the helm of the D.A.’s office after Robert Morgenthau retired as the city’s top prosecutor in 2009. Morganthau’s shadow looms large in the District Attorney’s office and Vance is working hard - with smaller Assistant District Attorneys - to carve his own path.