The department said he had been released to the custody of a private security company that is to guard him while his sexual assault case is pending and he is under home confinement. “Mr. Strauss-Kahn is no longer on Rikers Island,” which houses the city jail complex, the department said in a statement.
It did not say where Mr. Strauss-Kahn had been taken. An official at State Supreme Court in Manhattan said he would be staying in corporate housing used by the security company, Stroz Friedberg. He had been expected to stay in an Upper East Side building where his wife had rented two apartments, but the building would not accept him, a court official said on Friday. Mr. Strauss-Kahn had held since he was arrested last Saturday on sexual assault charges.
In the meantime, officials with the city’s Department of Correction were working to come up with a plan to take Mr. Strauss-Kahn off of Rikers Island to his ultimate destination and avoid the phalanx of media waiting outside in a caravan of vehicles.
The judge set bail at $1 million on Thursday, saying that Mr. Strauss-Kahn could leave Rikers if he stayed under 24-hour home confinement in the apartment with an armed guard posted outside — presumably to see that he stayed inside. The judge, Michael J. Obus, also ordered that Mr. Strauss-Kahn would have to wear a monitoring ankle bracelet.
Some residents of the building said they were unhappy at the prospect of having Mr. Strauss-Kahn as a neighbor.
“I think it’s an inconvenience for all of us,” said one resident, Michele Smith, who spoke outside the Bristol. “I don’t want that kind of publicity in my building.”
Another resident, Barry Schwartz, echoed the idea that the residents did not want the publicity Mr. Strauss-Kahn would bring. “He’s very high profile,” Mr. Schwartz said, “and it’s upsetting to tenants to have all of that.” He gestured in the direction of the throng of reporters waiting outside the building.
“They just don’t want all that,” he said of his neighbors. “They just don’t want 40,000 reporters. It could be for a movie star for all they know.”
Judge Obus had said on Thursday that if there was the “slightest problem with your compliance,” he could change the conditions of the bail or even withdraw it. It was not immediately clear what the problem with the apartment would mean for the deal he had approved.
Before the judge gave his decision, prosecutors announced that a grand jury had indicted Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who has been in protective custody on Rikers Island since Monday, on charges that he sexually assaulted 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 is due back in court on June 6.
The courtroom fell silent on Thursday as Mr. Strauss-Kahn was brought in at about 2:30 p.m., looking far 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 tight-lipped grin and nod to his wife and daughter, Camille Strauss-Kahn, who were sitting in the front row.
Ms. Sinclair walked into the courtroom clutching her daughter’s hand. She wore a gray dress with a dark blazer.
In a sign, perhaps, of the seriousness with which prosecutors are treating the case, Artie McConnell, the assistant district attorney assigned to it, 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 affirmed the prosecution’s objection to bail being set. As he had argued during the Criminal Court arraignment on Monday, he said that the evidence against Mr. Strauss-Kahn was compelling and that he had the means to flee.
James Barron, Charles V. Bagli, Colin Moynihan, Ashley Parker and William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=eabd29a071e656d70bac8acdaeb7dad6