LThe trial of star TV presenter and real estate agent Stéphane Plaza, who was due to appear before the Paris judicial court on Wednesday for violence against two former partners, has finally been postponed until January 9 after hours of procedural examinations.
Stéphane Plaza, 54, did not appear at the hearing, unlike the two plaintiffs, due, according to his lawyers, to “psychological fragility”. The court ordered that he be present at the referral hearing and requested a counter-psychiatric assessment to assess his state of health.
According to a medical certificate, cited at the hearing and dated August 22, the presenter suffers from “massive anxiety, dark thoughts and sleep disorders”. According to the practitioner who examined him, “hospitalization in a protected environment would be a favorable option”.
Sign of a “lack of courage”
From the start of the hearing, Mr Plaza’s counsel, Hélène Plumet and Carlo Alberto Brusa, defended two priority questions of constitutionality (QPC), one concerning the conditions in which their client was brought before the court and the other concerning the concept of total incapacity for work (ITT).
After deliberating for just over two hours, the court decided not to forward these QPCs to the Court of Cassation, considering that they were “lacking in seriousness”.
The lawyers for the two plaintiffs, Mr. Benjamin Chouai and Mr. Clotilde Lepetit, denounced the “dilatory measures” of the defense to prevent the trial. “The purpose of these QPC is to prevent the trial from taking place,” Mr. Chouai protested.
Mr Plumet assured that his client wished to appear but maintained that he had been “weakened” by the “media lynching” to which he had allegedly been subjected. Mr Chouai denounced the defendant’s “lack of courage”.
Two complainants for similar facts
Stéphane Plaza, popularized by his various shows on M6, is being prosecuted for “habitual physical and/or psychological violence by a partner” between August 2018 and April 2022 against one of his former partners, as well as for “habitual psychological violence by a partner” against another woman between December 2021 and September 2022.
A total incapacity for work (ITT) of more than eight days was established for these two women, Amandine B. and Irma Paola R., following this violence.
The presenter, under judicial supervision, denies the accusations made against him. During his police custody last March, he had “clearly reiterated that he was not violent, had not been and never would be,” his lawyers responded at the time.
He faces ten years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros.
