Strauss Kahn Gets Off Again: Analysis...Judge Eugene Hyman FLC

(BBC) Former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been given back his passport after sexual assault charges against him were dropped in New York this week.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, has said he cannot cannot wait to return to France but he is expected first to visit Washington.

He had been confined to New York since May, when hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo accused him of sexual assault.

Opinion polls in his native France suggest his political prospects there have been badly damaged.

Before the affair, he had been seen as a likely candidate for the Socialist opposition to field in next year's French presidential election.

With the return of his passport, he is now able to travel to France.

FLC host Judge Eugene Hyman discusses the complex issues related to this case when a dismissal is requested. Once as case is filed permission is needed from a judge to dismiss, why?
Judge Hyman discusses standards to consider to file/dismiss. In a case like this the judge doesn’t have to grant a dismissal.

Hyman recalls the famous case of the Hillside strangler when Judge Ron George refused to dismiss the case in Los Angeles and appointed the State Attorney General to replace the county DA. The defendant was convicted and received the death penalty. Ron George went on to become the Chief Justice of California Supreme Court.

Read...the dropped DSK charges impact on future rape reporting.