He wanted to enjoy Christmas with his 5-year-old daughter. He will spend the next two, alone, behind bars. At the Roanne court, three days after the events, the man asserts and explains his behavior because he “panicked”.
Friday, December 20 around 10:15 p.m., Anthony Esqui
35, living in Sarcey (69) near Tarare, is traveling on the RN 82 towards Roanne at the wheel of his Clio, with his 5-year-old daughter sitting in the front passenger seat. He goes to his new partner who lives in Coteau. Separated from his daughter's mother, with whom he now shares shared custody, he had not seen his child for around twenty months, according to him.
Going against the flow for more than 5 kilometers on the RN 82
But Anthony Esqui also knows he is wanted by Justice. For a refusal to comply, committed on October 4 in Charbonnières-les-Bains (69) and for not having declared a new address, even though he is registered with Fijais (File of perpetrators of sexual offenses). When he notices, towards Vendranges, that gendarmes in an unmarked car are asking him to stop on the shoulder, he begins by slowing down and keeping to the right of the dual carriageway, before changing his mind and to choose to flee.
He turns around and takes the RN 82 in the wrong direction and accelerates sharply. The police activated their light and sound warning devices, but the chase lasted more than five kilometers. Motorists and two heavy goods vehicles manage to avoid the driver by passing him. He ended up stopping against the security barrier a few dozen meters before the Neulise roundabout. When the police arrived, the man lay down on the ground. The little girl is crying and screaming, scared in the car.
(Substitute public prosecutor of Roanne)
The driver's first instinct will be to give the name of a family member, before revealing their true identity to the military. A first test will reveal that he is positive for narcotics. He refuses to submit to more in-depth analyses, “on the advice of a lawyer”, he explains to the judges, a little stunned. He also lacks a driving license. “You are on the first step of the dangerous podium,” the deputy public prosecutor tells him.
I did anything, I put everyone in danger. I really blame myself.
Anthony Esqui simply explains that he panicked at the idea of not spending Christmas with his daughter. “I did anything, I put everyone in danger. I am very angry with myself,” he repeats at the court. He admits all the facts. Or almost. He claims not to have used drugs. “It was not a reflex of fear, but a reflex of avoiding your responsibilities,” corrects the representative of the Prosecutor’s Office.
Anthony Esqui is now a self-employed salesman. He says he is taking control of his life, after “a complicated life journey” which earned him 27 mentions in his criminal record and several years of incarceration. “I changed my life. I take responsibility for my actions and I ask for leniency from the court,” he asked the judges before their deliberations.
Sentenced to two years in prison
The thirty-year-old, for the seven charges against him, was sentenced to two years in prison, with continued detention and fines of €875. As additional penalties, his license was canceled and he was prohibited from driving a motor vehicle for one year.
As required by the Center France Group charter, we provide the identity of defendants sentenced to more than one year in prison, and are therefore subject to a committal warrant or continued detention.
