The court at Melun gave its verdict on Wednesday, 20 November 2024. Pierre Palmade, the comedian, was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison, two of them to be served in custody. The court followed the prosecution’s request on the length. A deferred committal order means he does not go straight to a cell.
The presiding judge told him what happens next. “You will very soon be summoned by the prosecutor in Bordeaux,” where Palmade now lives, who would set the date and the prison for the two years of detention.
What the record shows about the crash
The accident happened on 10 February 2023, in the evening, in Seine-et-Marne. Palmade had cocaine and 3MMC, a synthetic drug, in his blood when he took the wheel with two companions, who were not prosecuted. On departmental road 372 near Villiers-en-Bière, the Peugeot 3008 belonging to his production company drifted into the oncoming lane and hit a Renault Megane head-on.
The family in the Renault was badly hurt: a 38-year-old man, his six-year-old son and his 27-year-old sister-in-law, who was pregnant. She lost the baby. It was delivered by emergency caesarean at six months and declared dead after 32 minutes of resuscitation.
The charge was narrower than the family might have wanted. The investigating judge sent Palmade to trial in late May for involuntary injuries aggravated by drug use only. She did not accept the charge of involuntary homicide for the loss of the unborn child, which prosecutors had sought. Under settled case law of the Court of Cassation, a child not born alive has no legal personality. Palmade was a repeat offender in law because of a 2019 conviction for drug use, which exposed him to fourteen years in prison and a fine of 200 000 euros.
The hearing
Prosecutor Marie-Denise Pichonnier had asked for five years, three of them suspended with probation. “You cannot be too lenient when driving under the influence of drugs has caused a tragedy,” she said, while acknowledging that Palmade had admitted the facts and was in treatment for his addiction.
At the hearing Palmade spoke publicly about the case for the first time. Turning to the victims, he said he wanted to ask their forgiveness “from the depths of my being.” He added: “I understand their anger. A crazed drugged man hit them. It is inexcusable.” The victims received the apology in silence.
Their lawyer, Mourad Battikh, said no judgment could match what his clients had been through, and that the sentence was therefore a matter of indifference to them.
Sources
- Pierre Palmade condamné à cinq ans de prison dont deux ferme (TF1 Info)
- Accident sous emprise de drogue : Pierre Palmade condamné à cinq ans de prison dont deux ferme (L'Humanite)
