Twenty-one months after hitting a car head-on and under the influence of drugs, the actor and author appeared Wednesday before the criminal court of Melun (Seine-et-Marne).
Pierre Palmade once again in the spotlight, but this time those of justice. More than a year and a half after the serious road accident which he caused while under the influence of drugs, the 56-year-old actor has an appointment at the criminal court of Melun (Seine-et-Marne) on Wednesday November 20 . He appears for “unintentional injuries” and faces a sentence of up to 14 years in prison and a fine of 200,000 euros. Franceinfo takes stock before the hearing.
1 What are the circumstances of the accident?
It was 6:45 p.m. on Friday February 10, 2023, when firefighters were called to a traffic accident involving several vehicles on a departmental road, near Villiers-en-Bière (Seine-et-Marne). At the wheel of a Peugeot 3008, actor Pierre Palmade has just collided with a Renault Mégane coming in the opposite direction, with three members of the same family on board: the driver, aged 38, his son aged 6 and his sister-in-law aged 27, pregnant with six months. The shock is frontal, violent. Their vital prognosis is initially compromised.
The next day, the Melun public prosecutor’s office (Seine-et-Marne) opened an investigation for “homicide and involuntary injuries”. The collision caused the in utero loss of the fetus. As for the blood tests carried out on Pierre Palmade, they revealed that he was negative for alcohol but positive for cocaine and substitution drugs. The expert specifies that these are substances derived from cathinones, generally used for their stimulating effects.
2 Does Pierre Palmade recognize the facts?
On February 15, 2023, at the end of his hospitalization at the Kremlin-Bicêtre hospital, Pierre Palmade was placed in police custody and indicted for “homicide and involuntary injuries by a driver who used narcotics in a state of legal recidivism “since he had already been convicted in 2019 for acquisition of narcotics.
During his first interrogation, the comedian said he did not remember the facts but recognized his responsibility. “I am completely devastated to have put the family in dangerif you complain-t-il. I’m obsessed with this, with the baby who died. I’m dangerous because of drugs. I’m a nice guy, I’m a good person”, can we read in the order for referral to the criminal court.
Despite the requisitions of the Melun public prosecutor’s office, Pierre Palmade avoids prison. The judge of freedoms and detention of the Melun judicial court decides to place him under house arrest, under electronic bracelet, in the addictology department of the Paul-Brousse hospital in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne). He will then be transferred to Bordeaux University Hospital, to a follow-up care and rehabilitation department.
The comedian is now under judicial control, with a ban on contacting the victims, a ban on driving and a ban on leaving the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. He is followed in a day hospital three times a week and regularly attends narcotics anonymous meetings. He has also undertaken psychotherapy since September 2023, according to the order of referral to the criminal court.
3 Why did justice not retain the qualification of involuntary homicide?
At the end of May, the investigating judge in charge of the investigation decided to refer the artist to the Melun criminal court for “unintentional injuries, aggravated by taking drugs”, without however retaining the qualification of “involuntary homicide” required by the prosecution for the loss of the fetus.
A medical expert concluded that the baby carried by the pregnant passenger (who underwent a cesarean section following the accident) had died before birth and could therefore not be legally considered a person. “The clinical state observed in the child immediately after its extraction from the maternal uterine body is clearly and indisputably that of a state of constituted death: no motor reactivity, no spontaneous respiratory reflex movement”, can we read in the order for referral to the criminal court.
The question is at the heart of a thorny legal debate: pcould we talk about homicide in this case? According to consistent case law of the Court of Cassation which dates from the early 2000s, the answer is no. uA child who is not born does not exist as a person. A fetus therefore has no legal existence and its death cannot constitute involuntary homicide for the motorist involved. “If the child is born alive, the classification of involuntary homicide can be maintained. If it is stillborn, the status of person, therefore the classification of involuntary homicide, will not be possible”confirms to franceinfo Rémy Josseaume, lawyer in road law.
A few hours before the trial, the victims continue to deplore this choice of dismiss the comedian only for “unintentional injuries” and not for “manslaughter”. “The mother does not accept this decision. Considering that the unborn child is legally nothing and that he bears no rights is a legal aberration,” regrets to franceinfo their lawyer, Mourad Battikh.
4 What does Pierre Palmade risk?
Due to a conviction in 2019 for “use of narcotics”, Pierre Palmade finds himself in a situation of recidivism. He therefore incurs “a sentence of 14 years of imprisonment and a fine of 200,000 euros”according to the Melun prosecutor, Jean-Michel Bourlès. If the qualification of “involuntary manslaughter” had been retained, the penalty incurred would have been 20 years in prison.
The two passengers who were in Pierre Palmade’s car were ultimately not prosecuted. The two men aged 33 and 34, who initially fled, were placed under assisted witness status for “failure to assist a person in danger”. “At the end of the judicial investigation, there are no sufficient charges against them for having committed the acts of failure to assist a person in danger.we can read in the order for referral to the criminal court. The first was “found in a state of shock after the accident, which did not allow him to help people who needed it.” The second claims to have “inquired into the fate of the injured people before finding that they were being taken care of, an element not contradicted by the investigations carried out”.
5 How are the victims doing today?
“The family is extremely stressed by the hearing, confides Mourad Battikh. These are people who do not know the judicial institution. They dread this moment and this world that they do not know. A sentence that is fair in their eyes is a sentence where they will be listened to, recognized in their capacity as victims.”
Twenty-one months after the tragedy, their “physical and psychological state” is always “quite degraded”. “The reconstruction will be long,” continues the lawyer. “I don’t know what our future will be for my son and I. Will I be able to work again one day, will I stay in this state? I don’t know,” explained Yuksel Yakut, the driver of the hit car, Sunday November 10, interviewed by TF1.
The 38-year-old man says he “had surgery on my stomach, shoulders, legs, feet”, no longer have “sensations on three fingers”. “The doctors told me that I would have after-effects. (…) “I have such intense pain that I’m exhausted and feel like my brain is going to explode.”he still relates.
As for his 6-year-old son, sitting in the back of the car at the time of the collision, he “not doing well at all”. Plagued by “panic attacks”the little boy has repeated his CE1. “He doesn’t want to go outside anymore because of the scars on his head, he’s in constant pain,”explains his father.
Him, like the two other members of the family will be present in court on Wednesday. As for Céline Lasek, who defends Pierre Palmade, did not wish to speak before the hearing.
