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Strauss-Kahn on Suicide Watch at Rikers, Hearing Friday

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is on a suicide watch at Rikers Island.

The official said the action, which will put him under closer supervision, was taken as a result of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s intake evaluation, which was based on the nature of the charges, whether he had ever been in jail before and other factors, rather than on any gesture or attempt.

He has court again on Friday. Will his lawyers make a new bail proposal with more restrictive conditions, for either the judge presiding over Friday's hearing or a higher court? I would think so. He could live in an apartment in New York, with private guards as bail sitters, like Bernie Madoff, Mark Dreier and Cameron Douglas. Or, instead of a regular ankle bracelet, they could make him submit to GPS monitoring. Aside from its greater tracking abilities, no way could someone get through airport security without it going off.

I don't think Strauss-Kahn's lawyer has said the defense would assert consensual sex as a defense. He hasn't admitted any sexual act took place. The news media is intuiting this from his statement in court, "The evidence, we believe, will not be consistent with a forcible encounter". (He didn't say "forcible sexual encounter." ) [More...]

The woman's lawyer says the sex couldn't have been consensual and points out she didn't know Mr. Strauss-Kahn's identity. He was staying in a $3,000 a night room at the Sofitel -- she had reason to believe he was wealthy. If Strauss-Khan does say he offered her money for sex and she accepted, and then something went awry, I don't think whether she knew he was the head of IMF matters much. The suite speaks for itself.

It seems a little odd that a man just getting out of the shower and about to check out of a hotel and meet someone for lunch, before flying off to Europe, would spontaneously decide to rape the hotel maid. Did he even call for a late checkout?

If he does end up saying the encounter was consensual, will he say he pulled money out of his wallet to give her and mistakenly assumed she knew it was for sex when she thought it was for cleaning the room? Did they even speak the same language?

The facts do look bad for Strauss-Kahn now, but as