Presented to an investigating judge, to whom the continuation of the investigation was entrusted, the 54-year-old artist escaped placement in pre-trial detention. The Melun prosecution, which had requested it before the judge of freedoms and detention, will appeal.
“Pierre Palmade was placed by the judge of freedoms and detention under house arrest in a hospital addiction service, under electronic surveillance”, detailed the prosecutor of Melun Jean-Michel Bourlès, who did not mention his possible indictment.
The passengers, witnesses of the accident
The two passengers present in his car at the time of the accident, a 33-year-old Moroccan and a 34-year-old Frenchman, were placed under the status of assisted witness for failure to assist a person in danger. They had left the scene shortly following the accident.
Lawyer for the Moroccan passenger, Me Nathalie Fontanau indicated at the end of the hearing that her client “was sleeping” at the time of the accident. “He was a victim himself. We tend to forget that he was the victim of a traffic accident,” she told reporters.
On the side of the car struck, “the driver and his 6-year-old son are still hospitalized in intensive care in serious condition”, said the prosecutor of Melun in a first press release Friday noon.
The hospitalized comedian
Pierre Palmade was initially hospitalized in Kremlin-Bicêtre before being transferred Wednesday to the Melun hospital center to be heard by investigators under police custody.
He “admitted having consumed cocaine as well as synthetic drugs before driving” but “indicated having no precise memory of the circumstances of the accident”, added the prosecutor.
Manslaughter?
The accident left three seriously injured: a man, his six-year-old son and his six-and-a-half-month pregnant sister-in-law who lost the child. According to the French daily La Dépêche, the latter may not have died in utero. During her care by the emergency services, the young woman indeed underwent a cesarean to try to save the baby.
The investigation, entrusted to an investigating judge, must determine whether he breathed and can therefore be legally considered a human person. According to Jean-Michel Bourlès, the autopsy carried out did not make it possible to establish whether he was born alive and an additional expertise was ordered on this point.
Pierre Palmade was sentenced in 1995 for cocaine use. In 2019, he was taken into custody for use and acquisition of narcotics following being falsely accused of rape.
afp/juma
