Bronx Assemblyman Stevenson Rallies for Strauss-Kahn Accuser

Bronx Assemblyman Eric Stevenson is joining a chorus of local leaders coming to the defense of the woman who says she was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French politician and former head of the International Monetary Fund.

Stevenson, just coming off his first term in office, held an event last Friday at the Futa Islamic Center in Morrisania, a popular meeting place for the neighborhood's Guinean community--the West African country from which the woman involved in the incident hails.

“Rumors about her past that have nothing to do with the case even if they were true should not prevent the case from being heard," Stevenson said in a statement. "A dismissal would discourage victims from coming forward for fear that they themselves would be put on trial.”