NEW YORK---It was noon in New York on a lazy spring Saturday. But behind the closed doors of luxury hotel suite, a chambermaid was allegedly being brutally attacked in a horrific ordeal that was to shock the world.

Over the next terrifying minutes, the 32-year-old said she was grappled and groped, had her breasts and intimate parts fondled, her panties ripped, and was forced to endure as her attacker tried to push his penis into her mouth.

Shocked and in terror, she finally escaped and ran panicked from suite 2086, telling staff and friends that she had been indecently mauled by the man inside in a degrading and frightening assault.

Little is known about the young woman, who has worked at the Sofitel for three years, as her identity has remained a closely guarded secret since her nightmare began around midday on Saturday.

She is said to be an immigrant from Africa, raising a 16-year-old daughter in their home in a poor neighborhood of the Bronx, according to the New York Post. The Sofitel says she has always been a good worker.

But her ordeal may well spell the end of the stellar career of veteran French politician and the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The maid may well not have recognized her alleged silver-haired attacker, but within hours of raising the alarm, news of the brutal assault had unleashed a media storm which rippled around the globe.

Strauss-Kahn is a man who had it all, who has risen to the top of his game, and had his sights set on the next prize -- the French presidency.

One of the most powerful men in the world, he is used to jet-setting first-class around the globe and staying in the most luxurious hotels while trying to resolve some of the biggest economic problems nations can face.

But according to New York prosecutors, who on Monday unveiled the sordid, graphic details of the attack for the first time, he showed a very different side to his personality in suite 2086 with its views over the Big Apple.

About midday on Saturday, after stepping out of the shower, prosecutors alleged the 62-year-old finance chief pounced on the chambermaid, half his age, who had just entered the suite to clean after first knocking on the door.

Fox News reported that as is hotel protocol, she had knocked three times on the door of the 28th floor suite and identified herself as "housekeeping" before entering to take away trays and left-over condiments.

"Strauss-Kahn shut the door of his hotel room, thereby preventing the victim, a member of the hotel's cleaning staff from leaving," the New York district attorney said in the criminal complaint against the IMF chief.

"He grabbed the victim's chest without consent, attempted to remove her pantyhose, and forcibly grabbed the victim's vaginal area.

"His penis made contact with the victim's mouth twice through the use of force," it added, the clinical language failing to mask the horror of the attack.

The maid was said to be still recovering from her ordeal on Monday, after being thoroughly examined by doctors at a hospital who prosecutors said had found forensic evidence from the attack.

"She's a good person, very nice, very friendly. She's in shock," one of her co-workers told the New York Post Monday.

"Every time I see her I'm happy because we're both from Africa. She's never given a problem for nobody. Never noisy. Everything nice," another told the New York Times.

Prosecutors had got a "very powerful and detailed account of the" assault, Assistant District Attorney John McConnell told a court hearing Monday, at which the judge denied Strauss-Kahn bail.

"She made outcries to multiple witnesses immediately after the incident," he added, in a sign that whatever had happened in suite 2086 had shaken the young woman to the core.

Timeline, DNA

No one disputes that at around midday Saturday, Dominique Strauss-Kahn left his posh Manhattan hotel in a hurry. But why -- to flee a crime scene, or just to grab some lunch?

Those starkly different possibilities illustrate the dispute taking shape between prosecutors and high-profile defense lawyers for Strauss-Kahn, the French politician and International Monetary Fund chief accused of attempting to rape a hotel maid.

At a bail hearing on Monday, Strauss-Kahn's attorney Benjamin Brafman gave a glimpse of his future trial strategy when he ridiculed "inaccuracies" in the official timeline of the alleged rape attempt and flight.

According to police and prosecutors, Strauss-Kahn was in his $3,000 a night hotel suite on the 28th floor of the Sofitel near Times Square when a chambermaid entered and, to her horror, found herself being sexually assaulted by a naked man.

Initially, police said this happened at around 1:30 pm, but authorities now say it was closer to 12:00 pm.

Next, prosecutors say, the white-haired Strauss-Kahn -- until now considered a serious contender for the French presidency -- fled to JFK Airport, and boarded an Air France plane. He was 10 minutes from take-off and getting beyond reach of US law when police removed him from his first class seat.

Prosecutor John McConnell told the court that video footage shows Strauss-Kahn looking like "a man who was in a hurry." And on the basis of that timeline, Judge Melissa Jackson denied bail to a suspect who might flee.

But Brafman came up with a startling alternative to the official scenario.

"The reason he was rushing is because he had a luncheon appointment," said Brafman, a renowned courtroom performer who has previously represented Michael Jackson and hip hop mogul Jay-Z.

Promising to produce that lunch partner to corroborate the alibi, Brafman then fired another shot: the Air France flight was booked long before and had nothing in common with a sudden attempt to escape, he said.

"The theory he ran out of the hotel and ran to the airport, running away, is simply not true."

And if Strauss-Kahn showed no sign of being in a panic or attempting to flee after noon, then that was "inconsistent with logic and consciousness of guilt," Brafman said.

Still, even if Brafman gathers a convincing timeline for his client in the aftermath of the alleged crime, that does not necessarily clear up what happened in the Sofitel room.

Here, prosecutors indicate they have a strong hand. In addition to testimony from the woman herself, police have made a forensic examination of Strauss-Kahn, looking for DNA or other physical evidence of a rape attempt or struggle.

"The victim provided very powerful details," McConnell said. Results from a sexual assault examination of the alleged victim "corroborate her accounts" and a search of the hotel room indicates "there may be forensic evidence supporting the victim's version."

DNA or other compelling physical evidence could checkmate Strauss-Kahn. But so far his defense team shows no sign of nerves on this issue either.

Strauss-Kahn willingly submitted to further examination late Sunday without waiting for a judge to issue a warrant forcing him into the tests. So either defense lawyers genuinely thought they had nothing to fear or they were trying to get credit ahead of his bail hearing.

"We believe this is a very, very defensible case," Brafman said.

Frank Bress, a professor at New York Law School, noted Brafman is a "very good" lawyer whose team has surely nailed down the timeline "so it works to their advantage. Otherwise, they wouldn't be making such a public fuss of it."

Apart from a potential smoking gun in the physical evidence, matched with the maid's testimony, Strauss-Kahn could face an unpredictable hurdle: the view from jurors plucked from a largely working class, multi-ethnic pool.

"It's a difficult case because of the publicity," Bress said.

"It's going to look like a classic rich white man taking advantage of a young immigrant woman. But a good defense lawyer like Brafman is going to do what he can before the trial, throughout the trial to make it clear that sort of prejudice can't apply."

There are other imponderables, chiefly the story and credibility of the maid. "You never know what's going to develop," said Bress.

More sexual attacks

Haggard and unshaven after a weekend in jail, the chief of the International Monetary Fund was denied release on bail Monday on charges of trying to rape a hotel maid as allegations of other, similar attacks by Dominique Strauss-Kahn began to emerge.

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. A French lawmaker accused him of attacking other maids in previous stays at the same luxury hotel. And in New York, prosecutors said they are working to verify reports of at least one other case, which they suggested was overseas.

Strauss-Kahn's weekend arrest rocked the financial world as the IMF grapples with the European debt crisis, and 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 stood slumped before a judge in a dark raincoat and open-collared shirt. The 62-year-old, silver-haired 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 agency's executive board met informally Monday for a report on the charges against Strauss-Kahn, its managing director.

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 during the encounter at about noon, 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.

Brafman said defense lawyers believe the forensic evidence "will not be consistent with a forcible encounter." Defense lawyers wouldn't elaborate, but Brafman said "there are significant issues that were already found" that make it "quite likely that he will be ultimately be exonerated."

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.

At one point, Strauss-Kahn called the hotel "in a panic" about the phone, a law enforcement official said Monday.

Hotel security officers hadn't found a phone, but they were instructed by NYPD investigators to set a trap by informing him they had it and asking where they could get it to him, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation had not been completed.

Strauss-Kahn told them he was about to board a flight -- unknowingly tipping off authorities to his whereabouts, the official said.

Prosecutors said they couldn't force Strauss-Kahn's return from France if he went there.

"He would be living openly and notoriously in France, just like Roman Polanski," said Chief Assistant District Attorney Daniel Alonso, referring to the film director long sought by California authorities for sentencing in a 1977 child sex case. Swiss police arrested him in 2009, but he was freed last year when Switzerland declined to extradite him to the United States.

Defense lawyers suggested bail be set at $1 million and promised that the IMF managing director would remain in New York City. His lawyers said Strauss-Kahn wasn't trying to elude police Saturday: The IMF head rushed out of the hotel at about 12:30 p.m. to get to a lunch date with a family member, then caught a flight for which he had long had a ticket, according to Brafman and fellow defense lawyer William W. Taylor.

"This is not a case of someone who commits a crime, runs to the airport and jumps on the first available plane," Brafman said.

Still, Criminal Court Judge Melissa C. 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.

Strauss-Kahn makes an annual tax-free salary as head of the IMF of $420,930, plus an annual "scale of living" allowance of $75,350, according to a 2007 IMF press release.

According to the 2000 biography "Les Vies Cachees de DSK" by Vincent Giret and Veronique Le Billon, Strauss-Kahn's wife, Anne Sinclair, was one of France's highest-paid TV journalists before she gave up her job to avoid a possible conflict of interest when her husband became a government minister in 1997. The biography says Sinclair is also a wealthy heiress, whose grandfather Paul Rosenberg was a prominent modern art dealer before the Second World War.

French newspapers have inventoried the couple's real estate holdings, which reportedly include a six-room apartment in Paris' chic 16th arrondissement; a 240-square-meter apartment on the luxurious Place des Vosges; a home in Marrakech, and a house in Washington.

Strauss-Khan will be held in protective custody in the city's Rikers Island jail because of his high profile, said city Correction Department spokesman Stephen Morello. Unlike some inmates, who share 50-bed barracks, Strauss-Kahn will have a single-bed cell and eat all his meals alone there. Also, when he is outside his cell, he will have a guard escort.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for 31-year-old French novelist Tristane Banon said she will probably file a complaint alleging Strauss-Kahn sexually attacked her in 2002. Lawyer David Koubbi told French radio RTL that Banon hadn't pressed her claim earlier because of "pressures" but would do so now because "she knows she'll be taken seriously."

The Associated Press is identifying Banon as an alleged victim of sexual assault because she has gone public with her account.

Banon's mother, Anne Mansouret, a regional Socialist official in Normandy, said she had advised her daughter at the time against pursuing her claim.

A French lawmaker from a rival political party also alleged, without offering evidence, that Strauss-Kahn had victimized several maids during past stays at the Sofitel near Times Square.

The hotel issued a statement calling conservative lawmaker Michel Debre's claims "baseless and defamatory." Sofitel management "has had no knowledge of any previous attempted aggressions," the hotel said, adding that it had set up a hotline for workers to report incidents more than a year ago.

McConnell, the assistant district attorney, said in court Monday that New York authorities are working to verify at least one other case of "conduct similar to the conduct alleged." When the judge asked whether the potential other incident occurred in the United States, McConnell said he "believed that was abroad."

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said they had no immediate response to the allegations emerging from overseas.

In France, defenders of Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister who had topped the polls as a possible candidate in presidential elections next year, said they suspected he was the victim of a smear campaign.

The 187-nation IMF provides emergency loans to countries in severe distress and tries to maintain global financial stability.

Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Paris, Chris Rugaber in Washington and Tom Hays in New York contributed to this report.