Stéphane Plaza: Trial for domestic violence begins

The trial of star television host and real estate agent Stéphane Plaza began this Thursday, January 9 at the Paris Criminal Court, where he is being tried for violence against two former partners.

At the stand Stéphane Plaza, dressed in a midnight blue suit and a white T-shirt, stated his identity, then the president of the court began reading the facts.

The 54-year-old real estate agent is appearing for “habitual physical and/or psychological violence by a partner” between 2018 and 2022 against a former partner, Amandine, as well as for “habitual psychological violence by a partner” against another, Paola, between 2021 and 2022.

The two women, who were recognized as having total incapacity for work for more than eight days, were also present on the civil parties’ bench on Thursday morning.

Stéphane Plaza faces ten years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros. Since the start of the preliminary investigation in the fall of 2023, he has contested these accusations, to which are added threats denounced by a third ex-partner.

The trial was initially scheduled for August, but it was postponed until January because Stéphane Plaza did not appear due, according to his lawyers, Mes Carlo Alberto Brusa and Hélène Plumet, to “psychological fragilities”.

“Mr. Plaza did everything necessary today to be there,” assured his lawyer Me Brusa on Thursday. He castigated a “steamroller” having been attacked, according to him, on his client, by women “not happy to have had to endure breakups”.

The accusations against Stéphane Plaza began in September 2023, with the publication by Mediapart of testimonies from three former partners denouncing “humiliation, threats, verbal and, for two of them, physical violence”. The investigative site also mentioned “problematic behavior” on the part of the facilitator in a professional context.

The prosecution then opened an investigation into domestic violence, following the receipt of letters from Stéphane Plaza’s two ex-partners. Immediately afterwards, the latter announced that he had filed a complaint against the two women three months earlier, for harassment and cyberharassment. But during this Thursday’s hearing, one of his lawyers, Me Carlo Alberto Brusa, indicated that he had received on Wednesday “the information of the dismissal of this complaint”, writes “Le Parisien”.

Initially a real estate agent, Stéphane Plaza became a star of the small screen when M6 propelled him in 2006 to the head of the shows “Research apartment or house” and “Maison à vente” (2007), followed by “Chasseurs d’appart” (2015).

In the absence of a conviction of the host by the courts, M6 has repeatedly ruled out ending their collaboration. In the fall, however, several media outlets claimed that the channel was working to “liquidate” the Stéphane Plaza shows already in stock. Asked ahead of the trial by AFP, the channel did not wish to comment.