Contrary to criminal case law, the Melun public prosecutor's office requested a “debate” in court on a possible charge of “involuntary manslaughter” in connection with a six-month-old fetus lost in the uterus in the traffic accident suffered by Pierre Palmade.
• Also read: Traffic accident: Pierre Palmade is “horrified” that he has “messed up” his life
In its final indictment presented on Monday, which AFP was able to obtain, the public prosecutor's office requests that the 55-year-old comedian be referred for “homicide and negligent bodily harm” for the serious traffic accident he caused on February 10, 2023 on a departmental road in Seine-et-Marne . The final decision now lies with the investigating judge responsible for the investigation.
In addition to the three seriously injured people from the same family, the accident, caused by the actor driving after three days of sleepless “bingeing” and frantic drug use, caused the intrauterine loss of a six-month-old fetus. female. Weighing 1.09 kg, the baby was “indisputably viable” before the accident, according to a medical report commissioned by the courts.
However, according to the settled case law of the Court of Cassation, which has ruled on similar cases of traffic accidents, a child who has not been born does not exist as a person. A fetus therefore has no legal existence and its death cannot therefore constitute involuntary homicide for the motorist involved.
Giving the fetus criminal law status would raise thorny questions of bioethics and law, particularly on issues of abortion, the law of which France has just incorporated into its constitution.
However, in the conclusions submitted by Mourad Battikh, lawyer of the injured family, the civil party considers that the jurisprudence of the Court of Cassation “must be questioned” in order to “provide criminal protection to the viable unborn child”.
These comments “in connection with the granting of legal personality to the viable child (…) deserve a debate before the court of first instance”, the public prosecutor's office takes into account in its indictment, but recognizes that this does not correspond to case law.
The public prosecutor's office is therefore calling for the dismissal of Pierre Palmade for “negligent homicide” and not just for preventing “negligent bodily harm”.
Offset of the vehicle
At the end of a February day, Pierre Palmade had a large amount of cocaine and 3MMC (a synthetic drug) in his blood when he got behind the wheel with two passengers to go shopping. The comedian has his heyday behind him, is heavily in debt and is so addicted to drugs that he can no longer work.
On Department 372 near Villiers-en Bière, his production company's Peugeot 3008 crossed into the oncoming lane and collided head-on with the oncoming Renault Mégane of the Y. family.
Several witnesses said they saw Palmade's car first crash onto its side, “like someone falling asleep at the wheel,” and then suddenly jerk the steering wheel the other way to get away, which would have put him in the oncoming lane.
Whatever the exact course of the accident, which the artist said at the hearing that he could not remember: “Pierre Palmade made a driving error by entering the lane completely in the opposite direction without correcting his trajectory “, Melun cuts open the floor. An accidentological report “attributes the cause of the accident exclusively to him”.
The injured family members are still suffering from the physical and psychological consequences of the accident. During his first appearance before the investigating judge, Pierre Palmade said he was “shocked” by the consequences of the accident for the victims.
“I'm obsessed with that, with the baby that died (…) I'm dangerous because of the drugs, I'm a nice guy, I'm a good person,” explained the artist, who himself lost his father A traffic accident at the age of eight.
Due to a drug conviction in 2019, Pierre Palmade is a recidivist. He is currently under judicial supervision.