France: Stéphane Plaza considers himself cyberharassed by his exes

The 54-year-old real estate agent must be judged on January 9 in Paris for “habitual physical and/or psychological violence by a partner” between 2018 and 2022 on a former partner, Amandine, as well as for “habitual psychological violence by a partner” on a former partner. another, Paola, between 2021 and 2022. He contests these accusations to which are added threats denounced by a third ex-partner.

Immediately after these revelations of violence in September 2023 in MediapartMr. Plaza indicated in a press release that he had filed a complaint three months earlier, in June, against these three women for harassment and cyberharassment. Their accusations would therefore be part of a “revanchist spirit”, they told theAFP the host’s lawyers, Hélène Plumet and Carlo Alberto Brusa.

The investigation into cyberharassment, opened after Mr. Plaza’s complaint, was entrusted to the central Paris police station. “Several of the former companions” of the host “were heard,” said the Paris prosecutor’s office.AFP. On October 18, the famous real estate agent filed a new complaint with a civil party, this time wanting to refer the case to an investigating judge.

Also denouncing cyberharassment on the part of Stéphane Plaza’s accusers, at least two women close to the host have also filed a complaint. Jade C., 27, says she “received 180 messages from fake anonymous accounts” between April and July 2023 on Instagram, from 27 pseudonyms.

Met by theAFP with her lawyers, Antonin Gravelin-Rodriguez and Julien Roelens, this real estate agent took legal action in October 2023. Some of these messages consulted by theAFP present Jade C. as a “fiancée” of Stéphane Plaza and the host as unfaithful. “Do you really think this is a relationship you have with him? Is this what it means to be in a relationship?”, asks one of them, for example.

Some screenshots of other conversations, sent to him, speak about his life. “I have the feeling of having been tracked,” confides the woman who says she stopped working for five months following this cyberharassment and still sees a psychologist. “The only goal was to isolate Stéphane socially and destroy me psychologically,” she believes.

More than a year after her complaint, Jade C. deplores that the police have not yet heard her: as “I am close to the wrong person, I cannot be a victim”, she believes. She argues that her “file serves the public prosecutor’s office” in Paris, which requested that the host be tried for violence.

Like the host, Jade C. suspects, without providing proof, the complainants accusing Mr. Plaza of being behind her cyberharassment. Heard as witnesses, they contest. Paola, who described psychological violence, “denies”, dismisses her lawyer, Clotilde Lepetit. Benjamin Chouai, counsel for Amandine who reported physical violence, denounces “an ultra-gross smoke screen”. Stéphane Plaza is trying to “make this case of domestic violence a case marked by conspiracy where he would be the victim”.

In these investigations for cyberstalking, only one person has been taken into police custody in recent months, according to a source close to the case atAFP: Julie G., “former companion” of Stéphane Plaza, confirms the prosecution. Like Jade C., she too had filed a complaint for cyberharassment targeting Paola and Amandine.

Contacted byAFPJulie G. affirms that if she was placed in police custody, it is because these two complainants sought to exonerate themselves and wanted to “present her as the brain of this machinery” of online harassment. But “it’s false,” she assured, “the police checked my computer and my cell phone.” The prosecution is currently studying the follow-up to be given to the procedure.

The only victory for Stéphane Plaza at this stage: one of his ex-partners, Émilie (first name changed), and her current partner will be tried on March 19 in Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes) for attempted blackmail and moral harassment. Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, Émilie’s lawyer, lambasted at the end of August Mediapart “a SLAPP procedure”.