As the criminal sexual assault charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn remain in limbo until his next court hearing on August 23, his accuser, Nafissatou Diallo filed a civil suit against Strauss-Kahn on Monday detailing the alleged "violent, sadistic attack." Perhaps the most important part of the lawsuit is where she filed it: in the Bronx. "There isn't a worse forum in the United States for Dominique Strauss-Kahn than the Bronx," an ex-prosecutor tells the Daily News, describing what some in the bar believe to the the "Bronx effect—a long-held notion that Bronx jurors are more generous to plaintiffs than those in other boroughs."
Famed criminal defense and civil rights attorney Ron Kuby tells the paper that, "The Bronx is a poor community that has been oppressed for generations. The Bronx juror doesn't mind redistributing the wealth of those…oppressors." He has an even juicier quote for the Post: "The Bronx civil jury is the greatest tool of wealth distribution since the Red Army." Right. Or because she lives in the Bronx, she prefers to be judged by a jury of her peers.
Whatever the case, a 2002 study conducted by the Texas Law Review showed that amounts awarded by juries in the Bronx were no greater than in any other boroughs. In the trial, 6 jurors will have to determine whether there is a "preponderance of evidence" to prove guilt, not "beyond a reasonable doubt." But with Strauss-Kahn's wife's vast fortune, he could delay the case from coming to trial for many years.
