DAILY BEAST: There are a lot of lessons in the Dominique Strauss-Khan case about how rape investigations and prosecutions should be conducted. The most important is, don’t assume anything until all the evidence is in. The story is almost never what it appears to be on first impression. Everyone should have anticipated the possibility that evidence would emerge suggesting that a) the alleged victim might be in it for the money, and b) she might have her share of skeletons in the closet.
Despite that big oversight, the prosecutor did the right thing at first: he waited to get the forensic evidence before he brought charges against Strauss-Kahn based on the hotel housekeeper’s account of her alleged rape. But then the prosecutor messed up in speaking to the press, publically vouching for the truth of the woman’s account and for her character. Not that the defense team didn’t make mistakes of their own—they should have conducted a thorough investigation before suggesting that Strauss-Khan had an alibi because he had lunch with his daughter.
But prosecutors of sex cases need to do some major housecleaning—not only in District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s office in Manhattan but also in prosecutors’ offices all across the country. Special sex prosecutors and special rape prosecutors are often agenda driven. Too often they believe they’re on a mission and treat the alleged victim in a way that’s different from how they handle any other crime. They’re zealots; I call them Nancy Grace prosecutors. She behaves on her TV talk show as if there’s no such thing as innocence; everybody arrested is guilty. I believe there’s been a Nancy Grace aspect to this case. The prosecution presented its case in public as if there were no doubt about the alleged victim’s credibility or the complete guilt of the alleged offender… (more)
