Pierre Palmade sentenced to five years in prison, including two years, for causing a road accident while under the influence of drugs

The Melun criminal court sentenced, Wednesday, November 20, Pierre Palmade to five years in prison, including two years, with a deferred committal warrant, for the serious accident he caused on a road in Seine-et-Marne under the narcotics empire. This sentence is in accordance with the prosecution's requisitions.

“You will very soon be summoned by the Bordeaux prosecutor [où il réside désormais] which will determine the date and the penal establishment in which you will serve two years of detention »explained the president of the court to Pierre Palmade, found guilty of seriously injuring three members of a family in February 2023.

On February 10, 2023, the comedian took the wheel to go shopping, after several days of partying and unbridled drug consumption. His car collides with a vehicle coming in front. In addition to the actor, the accident left three seriously injured: a 38-year-old man, his 6-year-old son and his 27-year-old sister-in-law, who lost the baby she was expecting.

At the opening of his trial, Pierre Palmade said to himself “overwhelmed” by the physical and psychological injuries caused to the victims. “The serious injuries of Mr. Y. and the trauma of Mr.^me C., it knocked me down. I am truly overwhelmed, tested to see them in real life”declared the 56-year-old artist. Turning towards the benches of the civil parties, he told them « demand[é] forgiveness from the deepest [s]we be ». “I understand their anger. A crazy drug addict crashed into them, it’s almost inexcusable.”he conceded.

Noting his recognition of the facts and his commitment to detoxification, the prosecution requested five years in prison, including three suspended probation, in “the objective of restoring social balance” and denouncing the “scourge of driving under the influence of drugs”.

No memory of the accident

On February 10, 2023, Pierre Palmade had been partying continuously without sleeping for three days between Paris and his country house in Cély-en-Bière, alternating between injections of 3-MMC (a euphoric synthetic drug), cocaine and parties. of “chemsex”. “We really are like zombies”he described to the judges. Dozed by 3-MMC, he “wake up again” with new cocaine rails to get behind the wheel.

At nightfall, the comedian gets in the car with two companions to go buy dinner at the supermarket before the arrival of his dealer responsible for restocking drugs. “I see the three of us leaving the house feeling euphoric and then it's dark, I open my eyes and I'm [à l’hôpital du] Kremlin-Bicetre »said Pierre Palmade, who said he had no memory of the accident.

On his hospital bed, his loved ones explain to him what happened. And there, “I understand that I am in hell”confided the artist. According to the instruction, in the straight line of a departmental road, the Peugeot 3008 driven by the comedian suddenly swerves on the road, before colliding with a family's car on the opposite lane.

Post-traumatic stress

Friday morning, the comedian was confronted in the courtroom with the story of the victims' broken lives. Their vital prognoses for a time compromised, they still suffer today from serious physical and psychological after-effects.

Six months pregnant at the time of the accident, the woman sitting in the front passenger seat underwent an emergency cesarean section. Her unborn daughter was pronounced dead after thirty-two minutes of resuscitation, without giving any sign of extrauterine life. “It is very difficult for me to be present in this room today, there is a lot of work being done with my psychiatrist”she said.

With his left arm in a sling, advancing towards the bar with infinite slowness with the help of a crutch, the driver, Yuksel Y., described his new life circumscribed by pain and injuries. “I was a team leader, I had friends, during the weekend I tried to enjoy with my children, my family (…)today I can no longer do this kind of thing »he testified, helped by a Turkish interpreter.

For seventeen months and his nightclub outing in Bordeaux which made the rounds on social networks and outraged France – even the president of the court, who was moved by it at the hearing – Pierre Palmade has been abstinent . He undergoes urine screenings two to three times a week.

“Before the accident I had really lost the taste for life and now, with the resources I have given myself, I believe I have rediscovered the taste for life. I rediscover the simple pleasures of friendship, of family, of waking up feeling refreshed, of writing down personal thoughts”he assured.