Ex-IMF chief out of jail, staying by ground zero

NEW YORK (AP) — Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn traded in his
private cell at Rikers Island for temporary housing in a building within the
police department's "Ring of Steel" — a network of private and police
cameras near where the World Trade Center stood.
During his time at the 21-story Empire Building, at least one armed guard
will be watching him at all times, and he will have to wear an ankle
bracelet. His apartment's exterior doors will be outfitted with alarms and
video cameras, on orders from the judge who granted bail on charges he tried
to rape a hotel maid.
The 62-year-old former managing director of the powerful International
Monetary Fund had been behind bars since last Saturday. He has denied the
allegations.
The original plan was for Strauss-Kahn to move into a luxury residential
hotel under armed guard on Manhattan's well-to-do Upper East Side. Even
though the address was never officially released, police and media converged
on the building, the Bristol Plaza.
"Last night there was an effort by the media to invade the building,"
Strauss-Kahn attorney William Taylor said Friday. "That is why the tenants
in the building will not accept his living there." While Strauss-Kahn's
family had a lease and could have stayed, he decided to leave "out of
respect for the residents."
Late in the day, after the snag over where the banker would serve his house
arrest had been resolved, Strauss-Kahn was released from the city's Rikers
Island jail on $1 million cash bail and moved to the landmark apartment
building in a granite skyscraper, a person familiar with his housing
arrangements told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity
because the person wasn't authorized to speak publicly.
The apartment building on Broadway in Manhattan's Financial District,
several blocks from ground zero, rents two-bedroom apartments starting at
$4,250 a month, with 9-foot ceilings, bay windows and walk-in closets.
"This is intended to be temporary, meaning a few days, and in the meantime,
efforts would be made to arrange for another suitable residence," state
Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus said.
Prosecutors had argued against Strauss-Kahn's release, warning he might use
his wealth and international connections to flee to France and thwart
efforts to extradite him, like Roman Polanski, the French filmmaker whom
U.S. authorities pursued for decades after he jumped bail in a 1977 child
sex case.
Strauss-Kahn cannot leave his temporary housing at all. Once he is settled
somewhere permanent, he will be allowed to leave only for court dates,
meetings with his lawyers, doctor's appointments and weekly religious
services, and he will have to give prosecutors at last six hours' notice. No
trial date has been set.
He is accused of attacking a 32-year-old housekeeper in his $3,000-a-night
hotel suite. The West African immigrant told police he emerged naked from
the bathroom, chased her down and forced her to perform oral sex.
On Wednesday, Strauss-Kahn resigned as managing director of the IMF, the
powerful organization that makes emergency loans to countries in financial
crisis.
In his resignation letter, he denied the allegations against him but said he
would quit in order to "protect this institution which I have served with
honor and devotion" and to "devote all my strength, all my time and all my
energy to proving my innocence."