He wanted to enjoy Christmas with his five-year-old daughter. He should 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, residing in Sarcey, near Tarare, is traveling on the National Road (RN) 82 towards Roanne, at the wheel of his Clio, with his five-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 joint custody, he had not seen his child for around twenty months, according to him.
But Anthony Esqui also knows he is wanted by the justice system. For a refusal to comply, committed on October 4 in Charbonnières-les-Bains, in the Rhône, and for not having declared a new address even though he is registered with the F ijais (File of perpetrators of sexual offenses) . When he notices, towards Vendranges, that gendarmes in an unmarked car are asking him to stop on the side of the road, he begins by slowing down and sticking to the right of the dual carriageway, before changing his mind and choose to flee.
Going against the flow on the RN 82 in Vendranges
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 for 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.
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 refused to submit to further analyses, “on the advice of a lawyer”, he explained to the judges, a little stunned. He also did not have a driving license. “You are on the top step of the dangerousness podium,” the deputy public prosecutor told him.
Anthony Esqui explained that he simply 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 repeated on the stand in court. He admitted all the facts. Or almost. He claimed not to have taken any drugs. “It was not a reflex of fear but a reflex of avoiding your responsibilities,” corrected 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.
Two years firm
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.
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