Judge drops DSK's 'Hail Mary pass'

NEW YORK, May 1 (UPI) -- Claiming diplomatic immunity to protect himself from a lawsuit was Dominique Strauss-Kahn's unsuccessful "Hail Mary pass," a New York judge said Tuesday.

Justice Douglas McKeon of the state Supreme Court in the Bronx, a trial-level court, refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Nafissatou Diallo, The New York Times reported. Diallo, a housekeeper at the Sofitel in Manhattan, says Strauss-Kahn, then head of the International Monetary Fund, raped her last year.

Criminal charges against Strauss-Kahn were dropped in Manhattan because of questions about Diallo's credibility, and he has also escaped prosecution in France for sexual crimes. His lawyers argued he enjoyed diplomatic immunity as the IMF chief.

McKeon said Diallo sued after Strauss-Kahn had resigned.

"Confronted with the well-stated law that his voluntary resignation from the IMF terminated any immunity which he enjoyed, Mr. Strauss-Kahn threw his own version of a 'Hail Mary' pass," McKeon wrote.

Douglas Wigdor, who is representing Diallo, accused Strauss-Kahn's lawyers of a "delay tactic," the New York Post reported. As the lawsuit moves forward, he could be forced to return to New York to respond to a subpoena and to testify under oath.