Strauss-Kahn leaves NYC house, returns hours later (AP)

NEW YORK – Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn spent his first day of freedom from house arrest in a sexual-assault case by ducking out of his rented townhouse with his wife on Saturday, returning a few hours later and heading quickly back inside.

Strauss-Kahn, whose house arrest was lifted Friday following concerns about the credibility of a hotel maid who accused him of trying to rape her, had left the house in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood with his wife, Anne Sinclair, just after 2 p.m. Saturday. They glanced at a crowd of reporters across the street, then climbed into the back seat of a black luxury sedan, which sped off down the cobblestoned street followed by a second black sedan. Their destination was unknown.

The couple returned about three hours later, stepping from a vehicle outside the home.

Strauss-Kahn has been accused by the maid of trying to rape her in May. Prosecutors told a judge on Friday they had discovered serious problems with the maid's credibility. The judge subsequently lifted his house arrest, allowing him to travel in the U.S. but not abroad.

In a dramatic turn of events, the Manhattan district attorney's office revealed that the 32-year-old hotel maid had committed a host of minor frauds to better her life in the U.S. since arriving in the country seven years ago, including lying on immigration paperwork, cheating on her taxes and misstating her income so she could live in an apartment reserved for the poor.

Days after Strauss-Kahn's arrest, the maid made a telephone call to a significant other who was incarcerated in Arizona, and that also raised suspicions, said a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

In a letter to Strauss-Kahn's lawyers, prosecutors also said she had misrepresented what she did immediately after the time she claims Strauss-Kahn attacked her — instead of fleeing his luxury suite to a hallway and waiting for a supervisor, she went to clean another room and then returned to clean Strauss-Kahn's suite before reporting the encounter.

That change in her story, and the revelations about her past, weren't enough to kill the case entirely, but prosecutors acknowledged their position had been shaken and agreed to a defense request that Strauss-Kahn, often called DSK, be freed immediately from house arrest.

The revelations in a case once considered iron-clad came as a shock; prosecutors and police had said repeatedly that the hotel maid was found to be a credible witness.

Strauss-Kahn, who resigned his post at the powerful global lending organization, has denied the charges. He is due back in court on July 18. His attorney, Benjamin Brafman, said he believes his client will be vindicated.

Linda Fairstein, who oversaw the sex crimes prosecution unit in the Manhattan district attorney's office for 25 years, said rape cases are "especially difficult" to try.

"But they are nearly impossible to try when you find out the witness has already lied to you," she said. "The prosecutors and police, they took her word over the word of one of the most powerful men in the financial world."

Investigators have gathered forensic evidence in the case, including traces of Strauss-Kahn's semen found on the woman's work uniform, but that evidence alone isn't enough, said Fairstein, now a crime novelist.

"The DNA clearly suggests there was some kind of sexual exchange between DSK and the woman, but it tells you nothing about whether it was forcible," she said. "It can be deposited by consent or by force. Her credibility is the entire case. You have to believe her story."

But she also said that her transgressions don't mean her story is false.

"Bad people, people who lie, they're still sexually assaulted," she said. "So I think what everybody is trying to do now is bring her back again, and say `OK, you were dishonest about these things, now we have to figure out what really happened between you and this man.'"

At a minimum, questions about the woman's credibility could leave a jury doubtful that she was telling the truth about what happened. They also raise the possibility that the woman herself could be in legal trouble, if the government decides to seek punishment for her past fibs and fabrications.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. said the charges will stand for now. But prosecutors had a legal duty to turn over the uncovered information to the defense, and they were continuing their investigation.

In a letter sent to Strauss-Kahn's lawyers, they disclosed several instances in which they believed the woman had lied about herself or the circumstances of her life. They said she'd made up being gang raped and beaten in her homeland, Guinea, to enhance her application for political asylum in 2004. She now says she was raped there, but not as she initially said.

U.S. officials are often presented with fabricated stories by people seeking refugee status in the country, and the nation's immigration courts are filled with instances of immigrants who have been caught embellishing personal histories to meet the strict conditions for being granted asylum.

Lori Adams, managing attorney of the legal aid group Human Rights First, said that if the woman's application was based on fraud, the Department of Justice could seek to reopen the case and have her thrown out of the country.

Her attorney Kenneth Thompson said she went to prosecutors to tell them the truth and she had initially feared she'd be deported if she told them why she really left: because she was a victim of genital mutilation and she didn't want her daughter, now 15, to be similarly affected.

Prosecutors said the woman had also been lying on her tax returns about how many dependents she had to increase her tax refund and had misstated her income to avoid losing her apartment reserved for low-income people.

While it wasn't detailed in the letter, prosecutors have also raised other questions about the woman's credibility.

Prosecutors located a recording of the woman, days after Strauss-Kahn's arrest, talking about the case and mentioning Strauss-Kahn's wealth in a phone call to a man incarcerated on a drug charge, the law enforcement official told the AP.

The woman also raised questions by saying she knew little about tens of thousands of dollars others have deposited in bank accounts in her name, the official said. Authorities suspect the money might be drug-related, the official said.

Thompson acknowledged the recording but said any suggestion his client was involved with a known dealer or money launderer was a lie.

"I have not heard that tape," Thompson said.

But he said that when he discussed the recording with prosecutors, "I said, `Did she change her story to this guy in prison?' ... They told me no."

He said that since the start of the case, the woman has been consistent in the most important part of her story, saying that as she began cleaning Strauss-Kahn's suite he grabbed her breast, violently knocked her down and forced her to perform oral sex. He said she suffered bruises and torn ligaments.

If the case against Strauss-Kahn collapses, it could again shake up the race for the French presidency. Before the scandal, Strauss-Kahn, a prominent Socialist, had been seen as a leading potential challenger to conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Former French government minister Jack Lang said he spoke with Sinclair to offer the couple moral support. Lang, who has known Strauss-Kahn since the 1970s, urged him to go back to France and join the 2012 presidential race.

"He could be a good candidate" Lang said.

___

Associated Press writers Matt Moore in Philadelphia and Verena Dobnik, David B. Caruso, Jennifer Peltz, Tom Hays and Chris Hawley in New York contributed to this report.

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Strauss-Kahn spends first full day free of house arrest (AFP)

NEW YORK (AFP) – With the sex assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn hanging by a thread, damning new revelations emerged Saturday about his accuser, whose mounting credibility problems prompted the ex-IMF chief's release from house arrest.

Buoyed by a New York judge's order a day earlier to end all restrictions on him except foreign travel, Strauss-Kahn was enjoying his first full day of freedom -- as prosecutors scrambled to salvage some sort of case against the once high-flying French politician.

While the charges against Strauss-Kahn stand, the case has nearly imploded after prosecutors acknowledged their investigations of the accuser, a Guinea-born hotel maid, found she lied to a grand jury about the case.

In a letter to defense lawyers, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said the woman had provided a "false" narrative of her life -- including a gang rape which she later admitted never occurred -- as part of her application process for US asylum.

Among other details gleaned about the maid were her possible links to criminal activities, including drug dealing and money laundering, a law enforcement official told The New York Times.

Within a day of the alleged rape attempt, the maid was recorded speaking on the phone with a boyfriend jailed for possessing 400 pounds (180 kilograms) of marijuana and discussing the benefits of pursuing charges, according to the newspaper.

When the conversation was translated from Fulani, the maid's native language, investigators became concerned.

"She says words to the effect of, 'Don't worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I'm doing,'" the Times quotes one of the officials as saying.

The paper said the man was one of several individuals who made multiple cash deposits totaling around $100,000 into the woman's bank account over the last two years.

The sensational twist raised hopes among Stauss-Kahn's ardent supporters that the case will collapse and the Socialist party favorite will return to frontline politics, possibly even as a candidate to challenge French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012 elections.

In a hint of just how possible a potential Strauss Kahn bid might be, fellow socialist Segolene Royal, a candidate in the presidential vote, said she had no problem delaying the process to make room for him.

But the current deadline for declaring in the Socialist Party primary is July 13 -- five days before Strauss-Kahn's next scheduled court appearance in New York.

And authorities will keep his passport pending possible trial, meaning he cannot travel outside of the United States, though his $1 million bail and $5 million bond will now be returned.

The Socialist Party heavyweight quickly took advantage of his newfound freedom after leaving a packed Manhattan courtroom Friday, celebrating over dinner with his wife and another couple at a posh Italian restaurant on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

The 62-year-old dined on pasta pappardelle with truffles, and the tab ran to around $600, according to the restaurant owner.

It was a stunning reversal of fortune for a man who spent days locked up in New York's tough Rikers Island jail in May.

Despite the maid's shattered credibility, Vance vowed to continue the investigations until prosecutors had uncovered all the facts.

"Today's proceedings did not dismiss the indictment or any of the charges against the defendant," he stressed.

Judge Michael Obus concurred, telling the court: "The case is not over.... In the meantime, there will be no rush to judgment."

Legal analysts, however, said the case was likely dead in the water and would be dismissed.

According to the accuser's initial grand jury testimony, she fled Strauss-Kahn's luxury hotel suite immediately after the May 14 attack and waited in the hallway before informing a supervisor.

But, prosecutors revealed, the 32-year-old subsequently changed her story, admitting she actually cleaned another room and even returned to start cleaning Strauss-Kahn's suite before alerting her bosses.

Strauss-Kahn's attorneys William Taylor and Benjamin Brafman said the disclosures "only further confirm that he will be fully exonerated."

Outside the courtroom, the maid's lawyer Kenneth Thompson admitted his client had made "some mistakes," but insisted forensic evidence would prove Strauss-Kahn was guilty of a brutal sexual assault.

Neighbors in the accuser's Bronx neighborhood, including many fellow Guineans, were philosophical.

"Maybe she lied. It just ends up hurting all Guineans if people have less then good intentions," said Tidiane Ba, speaking in French. "But we have to let the courts do their job."

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Strauss-Kahn freed from house arrest (AFP)

NEW YORK (AFP) – A US judge released Dominique Strauss-Kahn on his "own recognizance" Friday, but prosecutors who consented to the easing of bail restrictions did not agree to dismiss the sexual assault case against the former IMF chief.

The French politician was in a New York courtroom for a brief but extraordinary hearing that came in the wake of reports that prosecutors had grave doubts about the credibility Strauss-Kahn's accuser, and while sources suggested to US media that the case had serious problems, the judge stressed that the "case is not over."

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Strauss-Kahn free from house arrest; charges stand (AP)

By JENNIFER PELTZ and TOM HAYS, Associated Press Jennifer Peltz And Tom Hays, Associated Press – 47 mins ago

NEW YORK – Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn walked out of court without bail Friday, freed from house arrest, after prosecutors acknowledged serious questions about the credibility of the hotel housekeeper who accused him of sexual assault.

The charges, which include attempted rape, were not dropped, but the easing of his bail conditions signaled that prosecutors do not believe the accusations are as ironclad as they once seemed.

"It is a great relief," said Strauss-Kahn's attorney, William Taylor. "It is so important in this country that people, especially the media, refrain from judgment until the facts are all in."

After his arrest, Strauss-Kahn, 62, resigned from his post leading the International Monetary Fund and watched his presidential ambitions in France seemingly crumble. He had been confined for weeks to a luxury New York City loft on $6 million in cash and bond.

The 32-year-old hotel maid accused Strauss-Kahn of chasing her through his luxury suite in May, trying to pull down her pantyhose and forcing her to perform oral sex. Authorities have said they have forensic evidence of a sexual encounter, but defense lawyers have said it wasn't forced.

The stark turn in the case came after the woman admitted to prosecutors she had made up a story of being gang-raped and beaten in her homeland of Guinea to enhance her application for political asylum, prosecutors said in a letter to defense lawyers.

She also misrepresented what she did after the alleged attack — instead of fleeing to a hallway and waiting for a supervisor, she went to clean another room and then returned to clean Strauss-Kahn's suite before telling her supervisor that she had been attacked, prosecutors said.

She also misrepresented her income and claimed someone else's child as her own dependent on tax returns, they said.

The details speak to the maid's credibility and whether her story would stand up under oath in a prosecution that would rely heavily on her testimony.

The woman's attorney, Ken Thompson, fired back outside court, saying the district attorney's office was backing away from the case because it was too scared to prosecute it. He said she would come out in public to tell her story but didn't specify when.

Thompson said the woman went to the district attorney with information that her asylum application was flawed, but that she exaggerated on it because she was scared she would be sent back to Guinea. He said she came to the U.S. because she was a victim of female genital mutilation, and she worried her daughter, now 15, would be victimized as well. He also said she had been raped by soldiers there, but that attack did not occur as it was written in her asylum application.

Thompson said that Strauss-Kahn bruised the woman's genitals, tore a ligament in her shoulder and ripped her stockings, and that she fought to get away.

Investigators have said they found traces of his semen on her uniform.

"From day one she has described a violent sexual assault that Dominique Strauss-Kahn committed against her," Thompson said. "She has described that sexual assault many times, to prosecutors and to me, and she has never once changed a single thing about that encounter."

Thompson also said that news reports saying his client was involved with a drug dealer were lies.

The New York Times, quoting unidentified law enforcement official, reported that the woman was recorded on the phone with an incarcerated man around the day she made the allegations, discussing whether to press her case in court.

The newspaper said the man had been arrested on marijuana possession charges and had deposited cash in the woman's bank account.

"It is clear that this woman made some mistakes, but that doesn't mean she's not a rape victim," Thompson said.

Strauss-Kahn arrived at the courthouse Friday morning in a Lexus SUV and strode confidently up the granite steps with his wife, French journalist Anne Sinclair, at his side.

After the hearing, he slowly walked out the building with his arm on her shoulder, smiling at the throng gathered outside.

He was not given back his passport, and he will not yet be allowed to leave the country. His other attorney, Benjamin Brafman, said Strauss-Kahn would be free to travel within the U.S.

Prosecutors offered few details inside court on the turn in the case. Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said a further investigation caused them to reassess it.

"At the time this case came to the district attorney's office, we were faced with a credible claim of a serious sexual assault," she said, noting the accuser had promptly reported the alleged attack and had a "solid work history."

State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus, in releasing Strauss-Kahn, said there would be no rush to judgment either way.

Illuzzi-Orbon said, "Although it is clear that the strength of the case has been affected by the substantial credibility issues regarding the complainant, we are not moving to dismiss the case at this time."

If the case collapses, it could once again shake up the race for the French presidency. Strauss-Kahn, a prominent Socialist, had been seen as a leading potential challenger to conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's elections — until the New York allegations embarrassed his party and led to his resignation from the IMF.

"Those who know Dominique Strauss-Kahn will not be surprised by this evolution of events," one of his French lawyers, Leon Lef Forster, told The Associated Press in Paris. "What he was accused of has no relation to his personality. It was something that was not credible."

New doubts about Strauss-Kahn's accuser would also revive speculation of a conspiracy against Strauss-Kahn aimed at torpedoing his presidential chances. Within days of his arrest, a poll suggested that a majority of French think Strauss-Kahn, who long had a reputation as a womanizer and was nicknamed "the great seducer," was the victim of a plot.

Strauss-Kahn was held without bail for nearly a week after his May arrest. His lawyers ultimately persuaded a judge to release him by agreeing to extensive — and expensive — conditions, including an ankle monitor, surveillance cameras and armed guards. He was allowed to leave only for court, weekly religious services and visits to doctors and his lawyers.

The security measures were estimated to cost him $200,000 a month, on top of the $50,000-a-month rent on the townhouse in the city's TriBeCa neighborhood.

Under New York law, judges base bail decisions on such factors as the defendant's character, financial resources and criminal record, as well as the strength of the case — all intended to help gauge how likely the person is to flee if released.

Strauss-Kahn is slated to return to court July 18.

___

Online:

Prosecutors' letter: http://www.courts.state.ny.us/press/index.shtml

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Maid lie sees Strauss-Kahn freed from house arrest (AFP)

NEW YORK (AFP) – Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed from house arrest Friday after prosecutors raised serious doubts about the credibility of the woman accusing him of sexual assault.

The sensational twist raised French opposition hopes that the sexual assault case will collapse and the Socialist party favorite will return to frontline politics, possibly even as a candidate to fight Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidency in 2012.

A smiling Strauss-Kahn, 62, appeared as if a large weight had been lifted off his shoulders as he left the frenzied atmosphere of the packed Manhattan courtroom, his arm affectionately draped on wife Anne Sinclair's shoulder.

Strauss-Kahn, whose $1-million bail and $5-million bond will now be returned, is free to travel anywhere he likes in the United States, though the authorities will hang onto his passport, pending possible trial.

According to the alleged victim's initial testimony to the grand jury, she fled Strauss-Kahn's luxury Manhattan hotel suite immediately after the May 14 attack and waited in the hallway before informing a supervisor.

But, prosecutors revealed Friday, the 32-year-old Guinean maid subsequently changed her story to say she actually cleaned another room and even returned to start cleaning Strauss-Kahn's suite before alerting her bosses.

"The complainant has since admitted that this account was false and that after the incident in Suite 2806, she proceeded to clean a nearby room and then returned to Suite 2806 and began to clean that suite before she reported the incident to her supervisor," District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a letter sent to Strauss-Kahn's defense lawyers.

Despite shattering the credibility of the maid, Vance vowed that prosecutors would continue their investigations until they had uncovered all the facts.

"Today's proceedings did not dismiss the indictment or any of the charges against the defendant," he stressed.

Judge Michael Obus concurred, telling the court, "The case is not over, as we've heard. In the meantime there will be no rush to judgement on the case. We expect the process will go on."

But legal experts, such as CNN's Jeffrey Toobin, who admitted to being dumbfounded by the day's events, said the case was now heading in only one direction.

"It looks like this case is going to end with a dismissal of the case," Toobin said. "It's hard to imagine how there could be a trial at this point when the prosecution has essentially described its main witness as something close to a compulsive liar."

Outside the courtroom, the maid's lawyer admitted his client had made "some mistakes," but insisted the strength of the forensic evidence would prove Strauss-Kahn was guilty of a brutal sexual assault.

The lawyer, Ken Thompson, went on to relay in the most graphic detail yet the accusations against Strauss-Kahn.

"Dominique Strauss-Kahn came out running out of one of those rooms naked, towards her, and he grabbed her breasts first and started to attack her. He grabbed her vagina with so much force that he bruised her vagina."

Thompson said the attack was so violent that Strauss-Kahn ripped her stockings and tore a ligament in the maid's shoulder. "That is a medical fact. She now may need surgery for the damage he caused to her shoulder," he added.

"After he finished, she got up and started to run for that door and started spitting Dominique Strauss-Kahn's semen out of her mouth in disgust all over that hotel room."

Despite his defiance, Thompson admitted fearing the district attorney's office was "laying the foundation to dismiss this case."

"Our concern is that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is too afraid to try this case. We believe that he's afraid that he's going to lose this high-profile case."

Strauss-Kahn attorney William Taylor thanked the prosecution for investigating the maid's credibility and said: "these disclosures reinforce our conviction that he will be exonerated."

Doubts over the maid's credibility mark a stunning reversal in the case that has upended politics in France and prompted a change in leadership at the International Monetary Fund at a time of major upheaval in the eurozone.

Word that the case might implode has raised hopes among France's opposition Socialists that a vindicated Strauss-Kahn might return to help them drive Sarkozy from office in next year's elections.

"It's a thunderbolt -- but in the opposite direction this time," said Socialist former prime minister Lionel Jospin.

Strauss-Kahn, who resigned from his high-profile post at the world's crisis lender on May 18 to fight the charges, was ordered to return to court for his next scheduled hearing, on July 18.

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Strauss-Kahn released from house arrest (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest on Friday after prosecutors said the hotel maid who accuses him of attempted rape lied to a grand jury and made other false statements.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, still faces charges that he sexually assaulted the woman in New York but questions about her credibility appear to be shifting the case in his favor in a twist that could upend French politics.

The former steward of the global economy smiled as he left court with his wife, Anne Sinclair, at his side.

Until his May 14 arrest, Strauss-Kahn was a strong potential challenger to Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 election. Jubilant supporters in the French Socialist party hoped he might rejoin the presidential race but some analysts saw his chances as too tarnished.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers want the charges dropped. The judge said prosecutors will reexamine the evidence after they revealed the maid lied to a grand jury about her actions after the alleged attack and on tax and immigration documents.

"I understand that the circumstances of this case have changed substantially and I agree the risk that he would not be here has receded quite a bit," Justice Michael Obus told the court as he released Strauss-Kahn.

"There will be no rush to judgment. The people will continue to investigate and reexamine the matter as appropriate."

Strauss-Kahn, whose house arrest had included electronic monitoring and an armed guard, agreed to return to court as needed, including for a July 18 hearing.

His bail payment of $1 million and bond of $5 million were returned to him but his passport was not, meaning he can travel only within the United States.

With his resignation on May 19, Strauss-Kahn severed all his ties to the International Monetary Fund. Christine Lagarde, who has just stepped down as French finance minister, takes over the top IMF job on Tuesday.

QUESTIONS EMERGE

The case has hinged on the accuser, a 32-year-old Guinean immigrant who cleaned the $3,000-a-night suite at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan where Strauss-Kahn was staying.

Prosecutors found issues with her asylum application, tax return and statements to the grand jury investigating the assault case, court documents showed.

Prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon told the court "the facts of the sexual encounter was and is corroborated" but some details appear to have changed.

The woman initially said Strauss-Kahn assaulted her and she then cowered in the hallway outside his room until he left and she felt safe to seek help. Now, prosecutors say, she admits she cleaned a nearby room and then returned to Strauss-Kahn's suite to start cleaning before reporting the incident.

After the dramatic revelations, Strauss-Kahn's lawyer Benjamin Brafman said he wants the charges dropped.

"We are absolutely convinced that while today is a first giant step in the right direction, the next step will lead to a complete dismissal of the charges," Brafman said.

The woman's brother told Reuters in Guinea that she was the victim of a smear campaign.

Her lawyer, Kenneth Thompson, said after the hearing his client's story had never wavered and that Strauss-Kahn had bruised her badly and tore a ligament in her shoulder.

"The claim that this was consensual is a lie," Thompson told reporters. "She made some mistakes but that doesn't mean she is not a rape victim."

The New York Times quoted law enforcement officials as saying prosecutors found possible links between the accuser and people involved in drug dealing and money laundering.

They also discovered the woman made a phone call to a jailed man within a day of her encounter with Strauss-Kahn in which she discussed the possible benefits of pursuing the charges against him, the paper said.

The conversation was recorded. The man was among a number of people who had made multiple cash deposits, totaling around $100,000, into the woman's bank account over the last two years, The New York Times said.

Some commentators suggested that Strauss-Kahn, known as the "great seducer" of French politics, could have been set up.

His arrest opened the field for several other Socialist candidates for next April's presidential election, including party leader Martine Aubry, who trails colleague Francois Hollande in opinion polls.

Sarkozy, who nominated Strauss-Kahn for the IMF job, has not commented on the affair since his arrest. The case has prompted debate in France on gender equality and a media tradition of respecting the privacy of politicians' sex lives.

Nina Mitz, a former senior adviser to Strauss-Kahn at the French Ministry of Finance, said: "Today's stunning news can only make us regret that so much talent may have been wasted at a time when we all very much needed it."

(Additional reporting by Grant McCool, Christine Kearney, Paula Rogo and Bernd Debussmann Jr in New York, Mark Hosenball in Washington, Marie Maitre, Catherine Bremer and Geert De Clercq in Paris and Saliou Samb in Guinea; Writing by Mark Egan; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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Jury tours house of alleged US serial killer (AFP)

CLEVELAND, Ohio (AFP) – Jurors toured a house where an accused Ohio serial killer allegedly stored the decomposing bodies of 11 women for more than two years, blaming the stench on a nearby sausage factory.

Once the horror house tour was completed, they returned to court for opening statements in the gruesome case that broke on October 29, 2009 -- and had officials scrambling to explain why the crimes weren't discovered sooner.

"You are about to begin a disturbing journey," assistant county prosecutor Richard Bombick warned the jury, describing how many of the victims were found partially naked, their bodies bound with plastic bags and electrical cords.

"You will be convinced beyond any doubt, shadow of a doubt, all imaginary doubt that the person who is responsible for those atrocities sits in this courtroom," he said, referring to accused killer, 51-year-old Anthony Sowell.

Defense attorney John Parker in turn argued that the state had no DNA or forensic evidence to link Sowell to the crimes and said the crime scene was not properly handled by police.

"Please be patient... Please don't make any conclusions until you have heard all of the evidence," he said, adding that the victims were troubled women whose lives ended sadly but insisting they were not kidnapped.

The city's police department is also on trial.

The women allegedly killed by Sowell were poor, black and hampered by lifestyles that took them on and off the streets. That meant they weren't always immediately reported as missing.

Nor did police pay much attention to cries for help that could have saved the lives of six of the victims.

One bloodied woman flagged down police in December 2008, telling them of her desperate escape from the registered sex offender's house.

But police felt she wasn't a "credible" witness and declined to press charges even though they found blood and signs of a struggle in Sowell's home.

A second woman was also ignored after she told police in April 2009 that Sowell had raped her repeatedly over a three-day period at his home after telling her she needed to be "trained like an animal."

In September 2009 a third woman went to police and told them Sowell lured her to his house, raped and strangled her with a cord, then let her go when she regained consciousness.

It wasn't until police knocked on the door of the yellow house a month later with an arrest warrant that the bodies were discovered.

The officers went inside when Sowell didn't answer their knock and followed the stench to two rotting corpses on a bed on the third floor.

A weeks-long search of the house and yard found eight more bodies and a human skull in a bucket.

Sowell was arrested as he walked down the street two days after the first bodies were found.

He faces the death penalty if convicted of nearly 100 charges, including kidnapping, rape, molesting a human corpse, robbery and attempted murder.

The first victim -- 36-year-old Crystal Dozier, whose remains were found buried near the backyard fence -- had not been seen since May 2007.

Then came Tishana Culver, 29, who had been missing since June 2008, and Leshanda Long, 25, who disappeared in August 2008.

Michelle Mason, 44, and Tonia Carmichael, 53, vanished in October 2008.

Several of the remaining victims could have lived if their killer had been jailed after the December 2008 attack or April 2009 rape.

Kim Smith, 43, vanished in January 2009. Nancy Cobbs, 44, was last seen in April 2009. Amy Hunter, 47, disappeared some time in the spring of 2009.

Janice Webb, 48, and Telacia Fortson, 31, were last seen in June 2009, and Diane Turner, 38, disappeared in September 2009.

Some of their relatives watched the trial in a private room in the courthouse through a live feed.

Donnita Carmichael, daughter of victim Tonia Carmichael, and her grandmother Barbara were not allowed to watch opening statements because they have been subpoenaed to testify.

"I'm just sick of everything and I want for this to end," Carmichael told AFP.

Yvonne Williams, mother of victim Tishana Culver, lives a few houses down from the crime scene and saw the jury and the media arrive at the house.

"The jury is going to get a gruesome look at how he kept that house and what he did to my daughter and those women," she said.

"I really want him to be in jail for the rest of his life so he can suffer."

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