At the Melun criminal court,
He remained motionless, almost impassive, when the Melun criminal court declared him guilty. Pierre Palmade was sentenced Wednesday evening to five years in prison, two of which were closed, a sentence in accordance with the requisitions for having caused a serious accident in Seine-et-Marne while he was driving drugged. His sentence was accompanied by a “deferred committal warrant with provisional execution”. A technical term to say that the fallen comedian will not escape detention. Whether or not he appeals.
Educator, President Pierre Couvignou took the time to tell him what was going to happen. “You will very soon be summoned by the Bordeaux prosecutor” – where the actor now resides – “who will determine the date and the penitentiary establishment in which you will serve two years of detention,” he detailed. The deferred committal warrant is a 2019 provision which allows judges not to incarcerate immediately: the convicted person is summoned by the magistrate within the month following the hearing and their incarceration date must be set within four month maximum. Thus, Pierre Palmade will be in detention no later than March 20, 2025.
“In prison, you can find alcohol very easily”
The former actor now has ten days to appeal. During his pleading, his lawyer, Me Céline Lasek, requested that his client be sentenced to a four-year probationary suspension and an adjustable sentence, emphasizing the course of care undertaken by Pierre Palmade since the accident. “In prison, alcohol is very easy to find. What will it be? What care? “, she asked.
Pierre Palmade has been sober for seventeen months – he had a brief relapse in the summer of 2023 but asked to be hospitalized – and regularly attends support groups. His godfather came to testify at the bar of his commitment and good will. He also began psychotherapy. Even his younger sister, Hélène, finds him transformed. Previously, she imagined herself “organizing her funeral,” she confided on the stand. From now on, she sees a future for him in Bordeaux, “to carry a message”.
The question of an appeal is, however, delicate: theoretically, the actor risks up to fourteen years of detention because the state of recidivism – he had already been sentenced for possession of narcotics – was retained. Above all, this decision will not change anything about his incarceration. The committal warrant is “provisionally executed”: this means that even if he appeals, he will go to prison. Even if it means waiting for his new trial behind bars.
Two years behind bars, but not two years behind bars
There remains the question of the duration of the detention. Pierre Palmade was sentenced to two years. However, he may benefit from a reduced sentence after a few months. He will then continue his sentence at his home, with an electronic bracelet.
Our file on the Palmade affair
But the Melun criminal court also imposed a three-year probationary suspension: this means that during all these years, he will have to respect a certain number of rules set by the court – compensating the victims, continuing treatment, working. Otherwise, he could return to detention.
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