The Pierre Palmade affair will leave traces in French jurisprudence. As revealed by our colleagues from Le Parisien this Monday, March 4, the Melun public prosecutor’s office requested the referral to criminal court of the comedian Pierre Palmade, after the road accident that he caused on February 10, 2023, and which caused serious injuries to a 27-year-old woman, her nephew and her brother-in-law. The woman, pregnant, lost her baby a few hours after the accident.
But while his legal personality was being debated, the expertise showed that the child was stillborn, and had not had time to breathe; in fact, as provided for by French law, for the legal personality of an unborn child to be established, the latter must be born “alive and viable”. In this case, the child being stillborn, his legal personality had been excluded.
But it is a real turnaround in the situation that Pierre Palmade is exposed to. Indeed, the Melun public prosecutor’s office wishes to change the rule surrounding the legal personality of unborn children, and wishes to have the comedian convicted for “aggravated manslaughter and involuntary injuries”. This completely changes the situation for the actor, who was initially to be heard in a trial for “aggravated involuntary injuries”.
To justify its decision, the Melun public prosecutor’s office recalled that the child should have been born “alive and viable” if he had not crossed paths with Pierre Palmade : “It should be remembered that the medical expertise concluded that this child was indisputably viable when the accident occurred on the grounds that she was born after 27 weeks of amenorrhea + 5 days and weighed 900 grams. In addition , the medical expertise concludes that there is a direct and certain causal link between the public road accident suffered by (the mother) and the death of her child.”
He faces up to 10 years in prison
It is now up to the investigating judge to decide, and whether or not to agree with the requisitions issued by the Melun public prosecutor’s office, welcomed by the civil party. The trial of Pierre Palmade will take place a few weeks following the latter’s verdict, and should be held in public, and not behind closed doors as the actor would have liked.
Under French criminal law, roadside manslaughter is punishable by up to five years of imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros without aggravating circumstances. If there is a single aggravating circumstance, the penalty is increased to seven years’ imprisonment and 100,000 euros. If at least two aggravating circumstances are validated, the penalty is 10 years in prison and a fine of €150,000.
In this case, the aggravating circumstances that could be used against Pierre Palmade are the hit-and-run, the speed exceeding 50 km/h of the authorized limit, the wrong traffic in which he was traveling, and driving under the influence of drugs. The former best friend of Michèle Laroque and Muriel Robin
therefore incurs the maximum penalty.