April 20, 2024

Bail Granted to Ex-I.M.F. Chief in Assault Case

Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers filed a new application for his release in State Supreme Court on Wednesday night, reiterating their client’s earlier offer to put up $1 million cash bail and wear an ankle monitor. The new application also said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn would remain under 24-hour home confinement in the apartment recently rented by his wife, with an armed guard posted outside — presumably to ensure he stays inside. He also submitted a waiver of extradition, should the American authorities need to get him back from France.

The judge, Justice Michael J. Obus of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, agreed to those conditions, also requiring $5 million bond to be posted.

After setting Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s bail conditions, Justice Obus issued him a stern warning.

“Mr. Strauss-Kahn, I assume you’re going to be posting this in due course,” he said. “You will be subject to and you will have the benefit of the protection of the criminal court system, the criminal justice system of this state and this country. I expect you will be here.”

If there is the “slightest problem with your compliance,” Justice Obus added, he could change the conditions of the bail and could even withdraw it.

Before the judge gave his decision, prosecutors announced that a grand jury indicted Mr. Strauss-Kahn on charges related to the alleged sexual assault of a hotel housekeeper at the Sofitel New York.

The charges included several first-degree felony counts, including committing a criminal sex act, attempted rape and sexual abuse; the most serious charges carry 25-year prison terms.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn was placed in protective custody on Rikers Island after his arraignment on Monday; he has since been placed under suicide watch for precautionary reasons.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn was escorted into the courtroom at about 2:30 p.m., looking much better than he had in his previous court appearance. He wore a gray suit with a baby blue shirt and was clean-shaven. He gave a toothless grin and nod to his wife, Anne Sinclair, and daughter, Camille Strauss-Kahn, who were sitting in the front row.

Reporters started lining up outside the courtroom more than two hours before the start of the hearing. About 100 of them squeezed inside the courtroom, some even sitting in the jury box alongside sketch artists and photographers.

There was some rumbling around 2:15 when Ms. Sinclair, strode into the courtroom, clutching her daughter’s hand. Ms. Sinclair wore a gray dress with a dark blazer, and cocoa-colored, patent leather platform heels.

In a sign, perhaps, of the seriousness with which prosecutors are treating the case, Artie McConnell, the assistant district attorney assigned to the case, was accompanied by Daniel R. Alonso, the chief assistant district attorney, and Lisa Friel, the chief of the office’s sex crimes unit.

Mr. McConnell began by reiterating the prosecution’s objection to bail being set. As he had argued during the Criminal Court arraignment on Monday, Mr. McConnell said that the evidence against Mr. Strauss-Kahn was compelling and that he had the means to flee.

“He has the stature and the resources not to be a fugitive on the run,” Mr. McConnell said, but to “live a life of ease and comfort in parts of the world that are beyond” the jurisdiction of the court and the United States.

Even though Mr. Strauss-Kahn said he had lunch with a family member, Mr. McConnell said his exit from the hotel was “unusually hasty.”

The prosecutor added that Mr. Strauss-Kahn “has shown a propensity for impulsive criminal conduct.” Mr. Strauss-Kahn gently shook his head in response.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 19, 2011

Due to an editing error, the Web summary in an earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the timing of the indictment. It was handed up on Thursday, not Friday.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=ce771e144156a5443db803db58192d3e