The maid escaped and notified co-workers who called the police, Browne said. When officers arrived, Strauss-Kahn wasn't there and his mobile phone was left behind, he said. He was later detained by Port Authority police while sitting in first- class aboard the Air France flight. He was held in a cell in an East Harlem precinct house, where the NYPD's Special Victims Unit is located. The unit handles sex-crime cases.
A former Manhattan assistant district attorney, Brafman has represented singer Michael Jackson, rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs and Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano of New York's Gambino crime family.
New York police said Strauss-Kahn doesn't have diplomatic immunity. The French Foreign Ministry in Paris said French consul visited Strauss-Kahn in detention.
No Extradition
French law doesn't allow extradition of its citizens to the U.S., according to Stephane Bonifassi, a white-collar crime lawyer in Paris. Were Strauss-Kahn to flee, France could offer to take up the prosecution, he said.
French lawyers for Strauss-Kahn, Jean Veil and Leon Lef Forster, didn't return calls to their offices and mobile phones.
Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister and member of France's opposition Socialist Party, has consistently been among the most popular possible candidates to contest France's 2012 presidential election, according to opinion polls.
Manuel Valls, a Socialist Party executive, told RTL radio today that Strauss-Kahn told him two weeks ago, during a personal trip to Paris, that he was "getting ready" to run in the party primaries and potentially the presidential election. Valls said Strauss-Kahn's decision to run was made, even though he hadn't declared his intentions.
With his IMF term expiring next year, Strauss-Kahn has, in the past several months, declined to say whether he was planning to run for office. The vote will be held in April and May 2012.
Sarkozy Poll