Pierre Palmade appears on Wednesday before the Melun criminal court to answer for the terrible accident he caused on February 10, 2023. The comedian, “disastrous at having endangered” a family, will be confronted, in particular, with the situation of Yuksel, still off work, of her seriously injured little boy, and of Mila, who lost her unborn baby. The afternoon before the collision, the artist had “pricked himself eight times while injecting 3-MMC,” a drug that increases the libido. With a final take 30 minutes before getting behind the wheel.
“I’m a nice guy. I'm a good person. » This is how Pierre Palmade describes himself during his first appearance interrogation before the Melun investigating judge. In the preamble, he said he was “obsessed” by the accident, and by “the baby who died. I pray that the others remain alive,” reads the court referral order, which we have seen. When he made these statements in mid-February 2023, after his hospitalization and his police custody, the vital prognosis of Yuksel, 38, remained “in the short term”. He was driving the Renault which, on Friday February 10 at 6:45 p.m., pulverized the comedian's Peugeot on a straight road in Villiers-en-Bière (Seine-et-Marne). The frontal impact is “linked to a driving error characterized by a complete deviation into the lane in the opposite direction”, indicates the expert.
Before the judge, already at the time, Pierre Palmade recognized his responsibility. He also “prays” for Yuksel’s son, Devrim, 6 years old, who is fighting to stay alive at Necker hospital in Paris. “His subsequent prognosis cannot be determined, functional after-effects are to be expected,” specifies the medical profession.
During this same period, at the Kremlin-Bicêtre where her aunt Mila was airlifted, the “viable” child she had been carrying for 27 weeks did not survive the 32 minutes of resuscitation. Mila, 27, suffers from multiple injuries.
Drugs for two days, “practically all the time”
Pierre Palmade is sent alone to the criminal court. His two passengers, suspected of failing to assist people in danger, benefited from a dismissal of the charges. The 56-year-old artist responds to “unintentional injuries with incapacity greater than three months” for Yuksel, “less than three months” for Mila (45 days), little Devrim (70 days), the driver of the Twingo who followed and could not brake (10 days). The preventions are aggravated by the deliberate violation of the obligation to be careful while driving and the use of narcotics on repeat offenses. He faces 14 years in prison and a fine of €200,000.
The charge of manslaughter was not upheld because the baby Mila was expecting “showed no clinical signs of independent life” (see box below).
Pierre Palmade stopped taking drugs. In 2023, in front of the judge, he said he was aware that his addiction, since the age of 20, made him “dangerous”, that it should be “banned from [sa] life “. Before the accident, for two days, “practically all the time, once an hour”, he had taken 3-MMC intravenously to increase his sexual stamina, and cocaine to keep him from sleeping. One of the two “escort boys” had offered to drive to the supermarket; Palmade refused.
He also considers himself “totally responsible” for the tragedy. “I think every day of the victims whose lives I ruined. »
Irreparable consequences for the affected family
According to the analyzes carried out on the injured comedian (8 days of ITT), he was under the influence of “cocaine and cathinones”, the latter substance “having deleterious psychotropic effects on driving”. If it increases libido in a sexual context, “its effects are followed by a phase of descent”. Hence the taking of cocaine to stay awake.
These 48 hours of celebration had irreparable consequences. In addition to losing her baby, Mila suffered eight fractures. According to the psychologist expert, she is suffering from severe depression with deep distress, loss of vitality and social withdrawal. To date, “its consolidation has not been achieved”. Nor that of his brother-in-law Yuksel, victim of “major trauma” to the thorax, abdomen, pelvis, hepatic contusion, 16 fractures; he spent five months in the hospital. He will be assessed in February 2026. “The survival of this dying patient” is only due to rapid “interventions”.
Devrim was admitted to Necker with “major” head and facial trauma, “hemorrhagic contusions” and facial fractures. He is followed by a psychologist: a “very active and joyful” child, he is now solitary and withdrawn.
The defense will argue the absence of a booster for Devrim
The file is “heard” over one day because it does not pose any difficulties. Even if Me Mourad Battikh, the lawyer who represents Yuksel, Mila, Devrim and members of their family, wanted the classification of homicide to be maintained. In vain. Prosecutor Jean-Michel Bourlès did not appeal the decision to dismiss him, preferring that the trial be held within a reasonable time (our interview of October 25 ici).
On the other hand, the defendant's defenders should plead for mitigation of their client's fault in the boy's injuries, after having requested an expert opinion on the consequences of the absence of a car booster in the car. It appears that it “limited the role of the seat belt which blocks the child at the bottom of the seat”: he “impacted the front seat with more force (…) The severity of the injuries is 21% more serious if the child is belted without a booster seat.”
This is the only point likely to be debated. For the rest, Pierre Palmade, “fragile” according to the expert psychiatrist, “in decline professionally”, “appears dejected and guilty”. He wants to “pay” for the drama he caused.
Manslaughter only applies to a child born alive
The discussion about the “viability” of Mila’s baby lasted several months.
Her parents, Mila and Nigmet, buried their daughter under the first name of Solin. At 27 weeks and 5 days of amenorrhea, she weighed 1,090 grams. The unborn baby girl “presented no malformation,” according to the autopsy. “It was undoubtedly viable. » The experts established “a direct and certain causal link between the accident and his death due to abdominal trauma leading to acute feto-maternal hemorrhage”.
The courts did not recognize her as a victim because, “at no time, between the time of birth and the declared death, was there any spontaneous breathing or active movement of the body. The few heartbeats observed 16 minutes after birth are insufficient to ensure effective circulatory function and can in no way be considered as signs of extra-uterine life,” affirm the three experts.
However, according to the investigating judge, “it is settled case law” that “involuntary homicide only applies in the event of a child born alive”. The plenary assembly of the Court of Cassation ruled to this effect on June 29, 2001. By virtue of “a strict interpretation of the criminal law”, this head of prevention was therefore abandoned.
Related News :