With the media attention on the DSK affair, I now take an extra look at the maids whenever I check into a hotel.  Depending on the region, the workers represent the lowest immigrants on the totem pole, newcomers from Asia, Mexico, Africa, the Caribbean. I have relatives who work “housekeeping.”  They are generally overworked and underpaid.

As a hotel guest, I am quick to show my empathy. I try to leave a few dollars more as a tip.

Unlike  Dominique Strauss-Kahn,  I don’t see the workers as being at my disposal to be used as if they came complimentary like the bathroom toiletries.

So there’s my bias.

Initially, I cheered when they got DSK because his arrogance is so ripe.  He seemed ready for a fall. Man of power taking his imperial liberties with a housekeeper, that’s so Masterpiece Theatre.

But it’s just his luck to have a victim who appears to have so little credibility the prosecutors lost faith in the case and in her.

Reportedly, the victim lied about a gang rape that had happened previously to her. When it couldn’t be verified, what other conclusions could the prosecutors come to? They knew they couldn’t win a “he-said she said” case with a victim who could be discredited so easily.

So they punted.  Too bad.

They’ve just created a new climate for every victim going forward. They’ll now have a double burden.

Convincing a jury is one thing, but considering how hungry and overzealous prosecutors tend to be at putting someone behind bars, convincing a prosecutor is just a formality.

Not anymore.

Getting justice just got harder for the innocent.

I kept wondering could this be a cultural thing, a language thing. Did they not understand the victim from Guinea?

But though the accent is thick, she had no problem communicating. Reportedly, she was so convincing to prosecutors on the fake gang rape story she was in tears.  Then later she recanted.

Great acting can be truth in art.

It just doesn’t make it as truth in court.