NEW YORK — Test results returned Monday found that DNA from former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn matched material on the work clothes of a Manhattan hotel maid who says he attacked her, two people familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press.
The test results were consistent with what law enforcement officials have said about the account provided by the woman, the person briefed in the matter said.
They are also consistent with what Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers have suggested would be his defense — that a sexual encounter had indeed occurred when she came to clean his room at the Sofitel New York on May 14, but that it was consensual.
Other test results, including ones on samples taken from the hotel suite’s carpet, were pending.
The results described by the person briefed on the matter represented the first forensic evidence confirming that Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, had indeed engaged in a sexual act with the housekeeper, a 32-year-old woman from Guinea who was granted asylum in the United States and is raising her 15-year-old daughter. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the results had not been released.
On Monday, lawyers for Strauss-Kahn continued to search for new digs for their client as he awaits trial. His bail agreement hit a snag late last week after tenants at the Upper East Side apartment building chosen for his house arrest refused to allow him, citing unwanted media attention.
Strauss-Kahn is currently being housed at a temporary location under watch by armed guards with Stroz Friedberg, the same company that guarded disgraced financier Bernard Madoff. It was not clear when he would be moved. French and U.S. media have been staking out the building where Strauss-Kahn spent the weekend after he was released from his Rikers Island jail cell.
He resigned last Wednesday from the IMF.
His attorneys have described Strauss-Kahn as a loving father and family man. They say his actions after the alleged attack are not those of a guilty man eager for a quick escape. He left the hotel, had lunch and then phoned later to ask if he'd left anything behind. When he was told by hotel staff they had his cellphone, he told them exactly where he was: at John F. Kennedy International Airport on a flight bound for Paris. Authorities pulled him from the jetliner.
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