This story doesn't make anyone laugh. A brilliant comedian appreciated by the French, Pierre Palmade reveals himself in his worst light with this affair: a man addicted to drugs, to chemsex evenings, having caused a family tragedy at the wheel of his car.
1. What are the facts?
The case dates back to February 10, 2023. Around 7 p.m., Pierre Palmade is at the wheel of a Peugeot 3008 SUV on the RD372 in Seine-et-Marne with two other men. There was heavy traffic when his vehicle veered off course and collided head-on with a Renault Megane. A third vehicle is damaged.
A 6-month pregnant woman, a 40-year-old man, a 6-year-old child and Pierre Palmade are seriously injured. The pregnant woman loses the child she was expecting. Checked by the police after the accident, the comedian tested positive for cocaine and several “substitute drugs”.
2. What is he accused of?
On September 26, he explained himself to the investigating judge of the Melun judicial court. The night of the tragedy, the comedian had a series of chemsex evenings (taking drugs during sexual intercourse). He had been on 3MMC for three days in his second home in Cély-en-Bière (Seine-et-Marne). It shows the face of a man destroyed by heavy drug addictions and full of regrets.
In May, the investigating judge decided that the case would be tried in the criminal court. Despite the prosecution's requisitions pushing for the qualification of murder, the latter does not retain the charge of “involuntary manslaughter”. He maintains that the child certified dead in the womb of its mother is not considered “a living being” in the eyes of the law.
The comedian is therefore on trial for “unintentional injuries resulting in total incapacity for work of more than and less than three months”. The victims' lawyer says he is “scandalized”. ” There is a direct causal link between the death of this child and the accident,” indicates Maître Mourad Battikh on RTL. The victims' party denounces preferential treatment towards the personality, which the justice system denies, ensuring that the legal procedure is respected.
3. What do we know about the trial?
The trial opens this Wednesday, November 20 at the Melun criminal court. Pierre Palmade faces fourteen years in prison and a fine of 200,000 euros. This sentence is established taking into account that the man had “uses narcotics” and was “in a state of legal recidivism”.
Convicted in 1995 for cocaine use, the actor was, in 2019, placed in police custody for “use and acquisition of narcotics” after being falsely accused of rape. In June 2023, three months after the accident, he was seen in a nightclub before going to the hospital to report having relapsed after months of abstinence.
