He had ten days to do so. Sentenced at the opening of the appearance hearing on prior admission of guilt on Wednesday December 4, 2024 at the Niort judicial court, a peace guard finally appealed his sentence to six months’ suspended imprisonment. A sanction however initially accepted, the particularity of “pleading guilty”. The public prosecutor, Julien Wattebled, confirmed the information.
This national police officer sprayed a man, now in his thirties, with tear gas at point blank range during an intervention described as “tense” by the public prosecutor’s office of the capital of the Deux-Sèvres department. It was on the night of Saturday August 27 to Sunday August 28, 2022, in the city center of Niort. The victim almost lost the use of her left eye: she was left with thirty days of total incapacity for work.
Recent administrative case law
Requested, Me Sébastien Rey, the lawyer for the 54-year-old peacekeeper, did not wish to comment on this information. This challenge to the judgment is essentially explained by the three years of ineligibility imposed by the courts in addition to the main sentence. This sanction alone could prohibit the police officer from practicing, following a recent decision rendered by a French administrative court. The defense would have become aware of this brand new case law after the debates, the exemption from registration in bulletin no. 2 of the criminal record is no longer sufficient to protect itself.
More broadly, it is therefore possible to appeal a “guilty plea”: “At the time of the creation of the CRPC, the legislator wanted as much as possible to allow the accused to make an informed choice, develops prosecutor Wattebled. It is in this sense that the presence of the lawyer is obligatory, but also that the accused can request a period of reflection and even reconsider the recognition of the facts and/or the acceptance of the sentence. »
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