What is so wrong with the original plan to hold a trial for Dominique Strauss-Kahn to decide if he committed an act of sexual violence against a hotel housekeeper?

After all, it’s not as if the case against Mr. Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, has simply dissolved with the discovery that the woman who accused him has lied about her past, and had shady connections and a bank account with irregular cash deposits.

To begin with, there is evidence in the case that other people can provide, notably, crime lab results that show the semen of Mr. Strauss-Kahn was found on her clothing.

But that is only the beginning.

In the moments after the encounter between Mr. Strauss-Kahn and the housekeeper, four employees at the Sofitel New York each spoke to her, one after the other, and each was convinced that she was “shook up” and “in distress,” according to a person involved with that part of the investigation. “You had two former police officers who didn’t think she was making it up,” the person said.