As prosecutors privately weigh what to do with the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, an increasingly loud discussion is shaping up between legal experts who say the case is doomed and advocates who argue the prosecution should proceed despite questions about the accuser’s credibility.
The debate has grown from an inner circle of attorneys to a chorus of complaints casting shadows of race, class and power in the shifting narrative of the encounter between the rich, white former leader of the International Monetary Fund and the African immigrant hotel housekeeper who says he tried to rape her.
