everything you need to know about this resounding affair

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Friday February 10, 2023shortly after 7 p.m., the information that a serious road accident had just occurred on the RD372a road in the countryside connecting the towns of Villers-en-Bière and Perthes-en-Gâtinais (Seine-et-Marne), is given to us. According to the first elements collectedtwo vehicles collided head-on, before a third crashed into one of the damaged cars.

Shortly after receiving this news, the information was communicated to us than a “personality”is on the injured list. Then begins the quest for the identity of the latter in addition to that concerning the number and state of health of the victims. At around 9 p.m., it's official. The actor Pierre Palmade, owner of a country house in the neighboring town of Cély-en-Bière, is in one of the cars involved. According to confirmed elements, the comedian would even be at the wheel of one of the three vehicles.

Deceased fetus, disfigured child

Later in the evening, we learned that the actor, then aged 54was rushed to Kremlin-Bicetrein serious condition. Same situation for the three occupants of the second vehicle, namely a man and his 6-year-old son, transported to Neckeras well as a young woman, 27 years old, 6 months pregnant.

Arriving at the hospital, the latter undergoes a CT scan. His ribs are broken, his vertebrae damaged. If his health improves during the first hours, doctors notice that the fetus's heart has stopped. An emergency cesarean section is then performed. It was a little girl and the birth was due to take place in May.

The driver of the vehicle is for his part father of 3 children and works in asbestos removal. One of his sons, present in the back, underwent 5 to 7 operations in 72 hours. According to initial reports, the child was disfigured.

Finally, the passenger of the third vehicle, an 80 year old manwas transported to Melun hospital in relative emergency.

Passengers in Palmade's car?

While five people remain in hospital, most of whom are in intensive care, rumors will gradually rise. People reportedly saw “totally disoriented” individuals running from the scene of the accident. For a few days, investigators tried to elucidate this story and some time later, they got their hands on two men. The first was 33 years old at the time of the facts, as for the second, it was an individual “unfavorably known” to the police for drug trafficking. Arrested, they were placed in police custody, then questioned.

Chemsex

In the days that followed, the actor's state of health permitting, he was interviewed by the police and by the judges of the Melun public prosecutor's office, who opened an investigation against him for unintentional injury and manslaughter (a decision reviewed on May 27, 2024, only the counts of involuntary injuries were retained, read box).

They end up retracing the chronology of events which led to this dramatic accident. On the evening of Friday February 10, 2023, the comedian, who spent his day in his house in Cély-en-Bière, took the road to go to the Carrefour shopping center with two passengers, after hours of partying and chemsexa sexual practice that is done under the influence of drugs.

Just before taking his Peugeot 3008, he uses cocaine. As they returned from the Villiers-en-Bière shopping center, it was there that he lost control of his vehicle and hit the car coming in the opposite direction.

Two parallel investigations

After highlighting these elements, the Melun prosecutor, Jean-Michel Bourlèswho had also taken office a few days before the tragedy, requested the placement in pre-trial detention of Pierre Palmade. But he, indicted, will ultimately be placed under judicial control, with an electronic bracelet and a ban on appearing in Seine-et-Marne. Retired in Girondethe man had to undergo rehab.

Two parallel investigations were opened, one concerning the dramatic accident, entrusted to the urban security of Melun Val de Seine. The second case, now closed and judged, was followed by the gendarmes of the Fontainebleau company regarding drug possession. During searches of his home in Cély, investigators found numerous products and injection equipment: cocaine, ecstasy, 3-MMC, MDMA, etc. The comedian's three dealers were also sentenced at the Melun court just a year ago, in November 2023. The most heavily punished received one year in prison.

The instruction closed

The investigation having been completed, Pierre Palmade was finally referred to the criminal court for charges of involuntary injuries, by a decision of the Melun public prosecutor's office, dated May 27. He faces prison time, as the families of the victims hope. It's M^e Mourad Battikh who assists the civil parties. “The only victims in this affair are my clients,” he declared during a press conference shortly after the events. The council, originally from Seine-et-Marne, began his law studies at the Melun university. He said he was “dismayed” to learn that “involuntary homicide of the fetus was not accepted by the Melun public prosecutor’s office” in the Palmade case.

For his part, although he has not spoken publicly since the accident, Pierre Palmade, ex-husband of the singer Véronique Sansonwould have whispered to the Seine-et-Marne judges that he had “ruined the life of a family”. “I am horrified to know that I am the cause of all this,” he reportedly said.

The man of the theater should, as well as the victims, come out of silence this Wednesday, November 20, as part of the hearing at the Melun judicial court. The latter should be judged “like anyone” as confirmed by the public prosecutor of Melun, Jean-Michel Bourlès.

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