“He transformed our lives into hell. I want him to pay for what he did”, the comedian's trial opens this Wednesday

Comedian Pierre Palmade will appear this Wednesday in Melun court for involuntary injuries under the influence of drugs. Facts for which the 56-year-old man faces up to 14 years of imprisonment. Before the trial, a look back at this case which hit the headlines.

Friday February 10, 2023. It was around 6:45 p.m. when the firefighters were urgently called to departmental road 372, near the town of Villiers-en-Bière in Seine-et-Marne.

On this straight road, bordered by fields, three vehicles have just collided head-on. An extremely violent shock considering the numerous pieces of sheet metal littering the asphalt and the state of the vehicles, completely demolished.

Stuck in the carcasses, several injured people appear to be in serious condition. Among them, the driver of a Peugeot 3008, described by the first rescuers as “haggard”, “eyes in the dark”. Always conscious, the man reveals his identity. His name is Pierre Palmade, 54 years old. Victim of a pneumothorax and multiple fractures, he needs to be extricated.

On the other side of the road, the health of passengers in a Renault Mégane is even more worrying. The driver, Yuksel Y., dissected his aorta and he presents with severe polytrauma with multiple visceral and bone lesions. His son Devrim, 6 years old, who is lying semi-unconscious in the back seat, suffers from very serious head and facial trauma. 7 months pregnant, her sister-in-law Mila C., for her part, complains of severe pain while holding her stomach. While their vital prognoses are in jeopardy, the members of this family are airlifted to several Parisian hospitals. While the little boy is plunged into an artificial coma, the young woman must undergo a cesarean section. She gave birth at 10:51 p.m. to a little girl who had already died, the abdominal trauma following the accident having led to fatal hemorrhage in the baby.

In the third car which stopped in the middle of the lane, is Michel G., 86 years old. He suffers from multiple bruises, but he is a miracle. To investigators, the old man describes these few seconds when everything changed. “A vehicle traveling in the opposite direction, arriving at the height of the vehicle in front of me, swerved the wheel and violently hit it which pivoted to the right (…) I did not have time to react or to brake. And I hit both vehicles. They completely blocked the road, I had to hit them.”

Motorists who saw the scene then explained what happened. According to them, it was the Peugeot driven by Pierre Palmade which suddenly moved into the opposite lane to collide head-on with the Renault Megane which was arriving opposite. “He shifted like a person who falls asleep at the wheel. For me, he was driving fast, much faster than the speed limit.” said one of the witnesses.

Several people also say they saw two men get out of Pierre Palmade's vehicle after the accident and flee on foot. Two men who, despite the searches launched immediately, were only apprehended five days later.

While the affair made the front pages of all the newspapers, Mohcine E. was arrested in Clichy-la-Garenne on February 15. The 33-year-old Moroccan, a “sex friend” of Pierre Palmade, claims to have no memory of the collision, when he was sleeping in the back of the car. But it confirms what investigators already know, namely Pierre Palmade's very heavy drug consumption that Friday. “Between noon and the accident, he had injected himself approximately eight times with 3-MMC. During the afternoon, he had taken cocaine, but in small quantities and two glasses maximum of Jet 27.” He specifies that the last injection took place 30 minutes before their departure by car.

Upon his arrival at the hospital, the actor had in fact undergone blood samples that came back positive for cocaine and synthetic drugs: derivatives of cathinones, generally used for the feeling of euphoria and the sensation of energy that they provide. According to the French observatory of drugs and addictive tendencies, these are mainly substances “consumed by men who have sex with men in contexts that mix group sexuality and the consumption of synthetic products, what is commonly called chemsex“.

At the comedian's home, injection equipment and numerous traces of blood were found. The investigations also revealed that Mohcine E. acquired 10 sterile syringes a few hours before the accident.

While the second passenger, Sambou G., in turn decides to surrender, Pierre Palmade is arrested and placed in police custody. On his hospital bed, the actor immediately indicates that he has no memory between leaving his home with his “two party friends” and his awakening in intensive care. He confides his “shame” and his regretsfor ruining people's lives and their health.”admitting to being a drug addict since he was twenty. In addition to cocaine, which is increasingly consumed, Pierre Palmade says he discovered 3-MMC injections two years ago.a very strong product and more addictive than cocaine”, used to increase one's libido and sexual desire. So powerful that he can't get back on stage.

At the time of the accident, he admits that he had been using narcotics for three days without sleeping. Words reiterated during his first interrogation before the investigating magistrate: “I am completely devastated to have endangered the family I hit. I'm obsessed with this, for the baby that died, I pray that the other people stay alive. My relationship with drugs must be resolved, drugs must be banned from my life. I'm dangerous because of drugs, I'm a nice guy, I'm a good person.” Then he adds: “I recognize the unconsciousness of having taken the car with this drug, all the narcotics, which I never or very rarely do.”

Initially assigned to house arrest at the Paul Brousse hospital in Villejuif, under electronic surveillance, Pierre Palmade was released under judicial supervision on March 6, 2023 after having a stroke. Despite its “will to remain abstinent”he was rehospitalized a few months later after having a relapse. Since then, the actor has been followed in a day hospital and regularly attends narcotics anonymous meetings.

According to the expert psychiatrist responsible for examining him during the investigation, Pierre Palmade alternated for years between two faces: “that of the comedian, hard worker on an empty stomach and interested in mature women. And that of a reveler, unbridled, living his homosexuality in a displayed and all-powerful way. Gradually, it is this second face which has taken over, in an ever more advanced search for hedonism, at the risk of the rest of his life (…) The frenetic hedonic search having become his priority since 2020 and the discovery of the 3 -MMC and its psychological and sexual effects.”

The expert adds that the awareness of his behavior was gradual and partial. “Although aware of the seriousness of his addictive behaviors, he struggles to fight against them (…) But he is beginning to realize the extent of the efforts he will have to make.”

His two passengers having benefited from a dismissal of the case, it is therefore alone that Pierre Palmade will appear this Wednesday for involuntary injuries while under the influence of narcotics.

The facts of homicide were ultimately not accepted since the baby carried by the pregnant passenger died before birth and therefore cannot be legally considered a human being.

Convicted in 2019 for illicit use and unauthorized acquisition of narcotics, the comedian this time faces a sentence of 14 years in prison and 200 000 fine euros.

The one who has always remained silent since this affair, will speak for the first time before the court of Melun where he will notably face the driver of the Mégane, Yuksel Y..

The father, hospitalized for five months and left disabled, returned to this night of horror a few days ago on TF1. “I had surgery on my stomach, shoulders, legs, feet. The doctors told me that I will have after-effects (…) I have such intense pain that I am exhausted and I feel like my brain is going to explode“, he confided before continuing. “When I walk, the patches in my legs cause me a lot of pain. Even to wash myself and walk, I have to ask my loved ones for help.”

Concerning his son, now 8 years old, Yuksel Y. says that the little boy is prey to recurring panic attacks. “Il is not doing well at all (…) He had to repeat his CE1. He doesn't want to go out anymore because of the scars on his head, he's in constant pain.” The 40-year-old man only hopes for one thing today: “He made our lives hell. I want him to pay for what he did.”