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DSK Case May Rest On Tape Of Lunch At McCormick & Schmick's

What if your life depended on a lunch you had at McCormick & Schmick's? With the actual details of what happened in Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Sofitel hotel room forever relegated to he-said-she-said testimony, the disgraced former IMF head's sexual assault charge against a hotel maid may rest on the details of the lunch he had immediately after the alleged incident occurred. The Times reports that if one of the restaurant's cameras captured Strauss-Kahn's 90-minute lunch with his daughter, "It could bolster the defense case if they laugh or appear to share a leisurely meal," or support the prosecution if the tape shows the "Frenchman looking distracted or upset." Presumably of equal import is whether Strauss-Kahn ordered the Stoic Pervy Prawn Platter or the Skittish Shrimp Basket with a side of Edgy Finger-Tapping.

The accused checked out of the Sofitel at 12:28—in a way that prosecutors have describe as "a man in a hurry"—and hopped in a cab to his lunch appointment 8 blocks away, in a restaurant that his daughter reportedly chose. Strauss-Kahn's apparent reason for being in New York City was to meet his daughter Camille's boyfriend, who came "briefly" at the end of the father-daughter lunch. The pair also shared a bottle of white wine, before Strauss-Kahn hopped into another cab at 2:15 to board a place back to France. Additional recordings that may have shown him in the airport lounge waiting for what he believed were hotel employees (in actuality it was the police) to return his IMF cellphone, have been taped over and lost.

Strauss-Kahn has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, and is still awaiting trial at his swanky $50K/month Tribeca townhouse.

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Comments [rss]

  • I wonder what Camille's boyfriend thought of DSK?

  • Guest

    The Times piece on wether DSK mannerisms at the restaurant will bolster his defense is absurd. If  he comes across as happy and relaxed - does that mean that nothing happened in the bedroom? If he came across a maid going through his laptop and phones and tried to apprehend her - how is he supposed to look ?

  • GabeFroman

    It's quite obvious, this whole thing comes down to whether his tie was in a double windsor, which everyone knows is absolutely impossible to produce following the throes of unwanted French passion. Did these guys even go to law school?

  • uesider

    Amazingly inept of Airport Security not to have that tape.  Paging DHS!

  • randomtransplant

    And what will they do with this 'evidence' from Mc Cormick and Schmucks?

    "Ladies and gentlemen. He's a rapist. come-on. Just look at the pervy way he lays into that soup. "

    "I object, your honor! no man who orders well-done could ever preform an act involving testosterone!"

  • FU Boy

    I would like to point the jury's attention to the gratuitous amount of A1 heaped onto the defendant's Kobe beef.    Clearly, this is not a man capable of such crimes if he can't take a bloody piece of succulent meat without such abominable dressing.

  • randomtransplant

    Great to know that airport security is so lax that footage of a man apprehended on the tarmac is recorded over and 'lost' before the plane even leaves the ground. If you think about it, even dollar stores have better surveillance systems than this first class boarding gate.

  • GabeFroman

    Wait, I thought he was at Dorsia with Paul Allen...wait, where did I say I was?

  • Trustafarian

    great sea urchin ceviche!!

  • FU Boy

    I'm on the verge of tears by the time we arrive at Espace, since I'm
    positive we won't have a decent table. But we do, and relief washes over
    me in an awesome wave. 

  • ANGRYGOD11

    Or it could prove these people laugh in the face of disaster.
    Or it could be a very guilty man putting on a brave face for his daughter.
    Or maybe he is hungry and the food is that good.
    Or it just proves nothing.

  • Trustafarian

    "It could bolster the defense case if they laugh or appear to share a
    leisurely meal,"

    or it could prove that he's an elitist sociopath who wasn't the least bit worried about getting caught.

  • ftotheyu

    Exactly my thought. If you were a self righteous elitist you presumably wouldn't be the least bit worried...

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