By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT —Former IMF head and French presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn denied sexually assaulting a Sofitel Hotel maid in a court appearance Monday.
"Not guilty," Strauss-Kahn uttered before a gallery packed with media at his indictment. Another crowd — this time of furious maids — awaited him outside the courthouse.
The hearing before Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Michael Obus took just four minutes.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, was indicted on criminal sex act, attempted rape, sex abuse, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching charges.
Now free on bail and confined to a TriBeCa townhouse, Strauss-Kahn was whisked into the main Manhattan criminal courts building by security and a team of high-priced lawyers.
Strauss-Kahn's entourage also shielded him from the crowd of hotel maids who gathered outside the court to protest abuse.
A week after Strauss-Kahn's alleged attack, Egyptian businessman Mahmoud Abdel-Salam Omar was accused of attacking a maid in the Upper East Side's Hotel Pierre.
The two attacks have left hotel workers feeling threatened, the protesters said.
"I was appalled it would happen a second time," said Barbara Cardona, 47, who cleans rooms at Midtown's Shelbert Hotel.
"It's been happening for a long time," but it goes largely unreported because "people are scared of losing their jobs," she said.
She was joined by more than 30 maids, members of the Local 6 Union.
Outside court, Strauss-Kahn's attorney Benjamin Brafman thanked "the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have written and offered words of support since the case began."
But the alleged victim's lawyer said her accusation would not go away.
Kenneth Thompson said she wants everyone to know that all of the "power and money and influence" will not persuade her to drop her claim.
"What she wants is justice," he said. "She's a woman of dignity and respect."
He said his client has been too traumatized to return to work.
