France
Pierre Palmade indicted for manslaughter
The comedian was also under house arrest, under the electronic bracelet regime, and thus escaped pre-trial detention. But the prosecution will appeal this decision.
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Pierre Palmade was placed under house arrest at the hospital with an electronic bracelet.
AFP
A week after the serious road accident he caused while under the influence of cocaine, comedian Pierre Palmade was first placed on house arrest in hospital on Friday with an electronic bracelet. from his 48 hours in police custody. Presented to an investigating judge, to whom the continuation of the investigation was entrusted, the 54-year-old artist escaped detention on remand. The Parquet of Melun, which had requested before the judge of freedoms and detention, will appeal.
“Pierre Palmade was placed in a hospital addiction service, under electronic surveillance,” said Melun prosecutor Jean-Michel Bourlès on Friday evening. Then, in the evening, the same prosecutor announced the indictment of the comedian on the counts of “homicide and involuntary injuries”.
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 non-assistance to a person in danger. They had left the scene shortly after the accident.
Lawyer for the Moroccan passenger, Me Nathalie Fontanau indicated after 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 the press.
Still in intensive care
On Friday February 10, on a departmental road in Seine-et-Marne, the actor, who tested positive for cocaine, was driving a car that hit another vehicle. In addition to the actor, the accident caused three serious injuries: a man, his son and his pregnant sister-in-law, who lost her baby.
“The driver and his 6-year-old son are still hospitalized in intensive care in serious condition,” said the Melun prosecutor in a first press release Friday noon.
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.
The first passenger was arrested early Wednesday morning in Clichy-la-Garenne (Hauts-de-Seine). The second went to the Melun police station late Wednesday afternoon, accompanied by his lawyer.
“They confirmed that they fled before help arrived. They had also consumed narcotics,” said the prosecutor, who requested their placement under judicial supervision.
According to the first elements of the investigation communicated by the prosecution, the vehicle driven by Pierre Palmade struck last Friday around 7:00 p.m. a car which was coming opposite near Villiers-en-Bière, in the south of Seine-et- Marne, for some unknown reason.
“Devastated”
On board this Renault Megane, a 38-year-old Seine-et-Marnais, his 6-year-old son and his 27-year-old sister-in-law. The vital prognosis of the woman, six and a half months pregnant at the time of the accident, is no longer engaged. According to the declarations Wednesday of her lawyer, Me Mourad Battikh, she is “devastated”.
The instruction was opened for “manslaughter” to determine if the child had died before delivery or if he lived a few seconds before his death.
According to Jean-Michel Bourlès, “the autopsy carried out did not make it possible to establish whether this child was born alive. A complementary expertise has been 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 after being falsely accused of rape.
(AFP)