NEW YORK — Haggard and unshaven after a weekend in jail, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, chief of the International Monetary Fund, was denied release on bail Monday on charges of trying to rape a hotel maid as allegations of his involvement in other, similar attacks began to spill out.
In New York, prosecutors said they are investigating reports of at least one other case. In France, a lawyer for a novelist said the writer is likely to file a criminal complaint accusing Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her nine years ago. And a French lawmaker accused him of attacking other maids in previous stays at the same luxury hotel.
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Strauss-Kahn’s weekend arrest rocked the financial world as the IMF grapples with the European debt crisis, and it upended French presidential politics. Strauss-Kahn, a member of France’s Socialist Party, was widely considered the strongest potential challenger next year to President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Making his first appearance on the sex charges, a grim-looking Strauss-Kahn, 62, stood slumped before a judge in a dark raincoat and open-collared shirt. Strauss-Kahn said nothing as a lawyer professed his innocence and strove in vain to get him released on bail.
The judge ruled against him after prosecutors warned that the wealthy banker might flee to France and put himself beyond the reach of U.S. law like the filmmaker Roman Polanski.
“This battle has just begun,” defense attorney Benjamin Brafman told scores of reporters outside the courthouse, adding that Strauss-Kahn might appeal the bail denial.
Strauss-Kahn is accused of attacking a maid who had gone in to clean his penthouse suite Saturday afternoon at a luxury hotel near Times Square. He is charged with attempted rape, sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. The most serious charge carries five to 25 years in prison.
Strauss-Kahn, who has headed the international lending agency since 2007, was in New York on personal business and was paying his own way, so he cannot claim diplomatic immunity, the IMF said. He could seek that protection only if he were conducting official business, spokesman William Murray said.
The French newspaper Le Monde, citing people close to Strauss-Kahn, said he had reserved the $3,000-a-night suite at the Sofitel hotel for one night for a quick trip to have lunch with his daughter, who is studying in New York.
The 32-year-old maid told authorities that she thought the suite was empty but that Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway, pulled her into a bedroom and dragged her into a bathroom, police said.
He seized her breasts, tried to pull down her pantyhose, grabbed at her crotch and forced her to perform oral sex on him, according to a court complaint. She ultimately broke free, escaped the room and told hotel staffers what had happened, authorities said. She was treated at a hospital for minor injuries.
“The victim provided a very powerful and detailed account of the violent sexual assault,” Assistant District Attorney John “Ardie” McConnell said. He added that forensic evidence may support her account. Strauss-Kahn voluntarily submitted to a forensic examination Sunday night.
Prosecutors asked the judge to hold Strauss-Kahn without bail, noting that he lives in France, is wealthy, has an international job and was arrested on a Paris-bound plane at Kennedy Airport. He had left the Sofitel hotel before police arrived, leaving his cellphone behind, and appeared hurried on surveillance recordings, authorities said.
Defense lawyers suggested bail be set at $1 million and promised that the IMF managing director would remain in New York City. Brafman said Strauss-Kahn wasn’t trying to elude police Saturday: The IMF head rushed out of the hotel to get to a lunch date, then caught a flight for which he had long had a ticket, his lawyer said.
Still, Criminal Court Judge Melissa Jackson said the fact that Strauss-Kahn was on a plane when arrested “raises some concerns.” She ordered him jailed at least until a court proceeding on Friday.
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