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International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his wife Anne Sinclair walk in the Senate in Paris in this March 16, 2010 file photo.
NEW YORK—IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged Sunday with attempting to rape a New York hotel maid, in a scandal that upends his plans to run for president of France and throws leadership of the global lender into turmoil at the height of the European debt crisis.
A hotel maid, 32, alleged Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her in his $3,000-a-night suite at the luxury Sofitel near Times Square on Saturday, police spokesman Paul Browne said.
The IMF chief was charged with a criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment and attempted rape.
His lawyer Benjamin Brafman said he will plead not guilty. IMF spokesman William Murray said John Lipsky, the IMF's first deputy managing director, would lead the organization in an acting capacity in Strauss-Kahn's absence.
His wife, Anne Sinclair, defended him in a statement to the French news agency AFP.
“I do not believe for one second the accusations brought against my husband. I have no doubt his innocence will be established,” said Sinclair, a New York-born journalist who hosted a popular weekly TV news broadcast in France in the 1980s.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, spent the night in a bare New York City police cell in Harlem. At the Sofitel, Strauss-Kahn's suite had a conference room, living room, foyer, spacious marble bathroom and a bedroom with a sumptuous king-sized bed and feather and down duvet.
The white-haired, well-dressed, thrice-married father of four was alone when he checked into the hotel, not far from Manhattan's Times Square, on Friday afternoon, police said. It wasn't clear why he was in New York. The IMF is based in Washington, and he had been due in Germany on Sunday to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The 32-year-old maid told authorities that when she entered his spacious, $3,000-a-night suite early Saturday afternoon, she thought it was unoccupied.
Instead, Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where he sexually assaulted her, Browne said.
The woman told police that she fought him off, but then he dragged her into the bathroom, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear. The woman was able to break free again, escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, authorities said.
Strauss-Kahn was gone by the time detectives arrived moments later. He left his cellphone behind. “It looked like he got out of there in a hurry,” Browne said.
The NYPD discovered he was at Kennedy airport and contacted officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport. Port Authority police officers arrested him.
The maid was taken by police to a hospital and was treated for minor injuries.
New York police say the maid picked Strauss-Kahn out of a lineup.
Sofitel hotel spokeswoman Stacy Royal said the maid has worked there for three years and has been a satisfactory employee.
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