The sun is beating down on this disastrous Monday, August 5, 2019 in the town of Signes, in the Var. In the middle of the afternoon, L., a 23-year-old mason, loaded the company van with the falling facing stones from the construction of a swimming pool in a villa in the Bois Soleil housing estate. On the way to the recycling center, L. decides that this pine forest bordering the departmental road would do just as well and, above all, would allow him to gain an hour out of his day. He stops and empties his buckets, imagining himself out of sight.
But Jean-Mathieu Michel, the mayor of Signes, had made an appointment on this plot with three of his agents. The 76-year-old elected, mayor of his town since 1983, had made the fight against illegal dumping a long-standing priority. Nearly 140 illegal unloading points for rubble, tires, plaster and others had recently been identified in this massif. Surprising the young mason, he told him to pick up his waste. L. complies, then maneuvers to leave. A look at the exterior mirrors – this Mercedes sprinter has no rear glass or rear view radar – reveals three people on the side. The fourth, Jean-Mathieu Michel is actually on the phone, in line with the van, calling his municipal police. In his reverse gear, L. fatally hit the chosen one at a speed of between 12 and 19 km/h, according to the expert report. He continues on his way a few minutes before calling the gendarmes.
“He had made the fight against the wild deposits his life and he died in combat”
This Friday, it is under an overcast winter sky that L. climbs the steps of the Toulon court to appear on the count of manslaughter with the aggravating circumstance of having used narcotics. Journalists and photographers are present in large numbers, witnesses of the resonance that this tragic event had. Emmanuel Macron had sent a message to the funeral, Christophe Castaner, then Minister of the Interior, promised “the whole truth”. The political class and the media gearing up to the rise in violence against elected officials, a subject which was to fuel, from September, the debates of the Commitment and Proximity law, adopted on December 27, 2019.
A surge of fever in the heart of summer immediately recalled by the president of the court. “The mayonnaise had been mounted, we had almost talked about murder on elected of the Republic”, she scolded. And to add: “If it had been voluntary, we would be at the assizes. This is an unfortunate and tragic accident, but an accident”. In his black turtleneck and gray jeans, with his mid-length hair slicked back, L. stammers and speaks very little. His breathing is heavy, his voice timid. “Irrepressible vomiting and crying,” the gendarmes had noted during his hearing.
Lawyers for the civil parties are trying to press his cannabis use. At first, the saliva test carried out by the gendarmes proved negative, which was contradicted by a blood sample. “I had pulled a few bars on the joint of a colleague [un ami en Provence] on Saturday evening, ”explains the defendant. The expertise shows a moderate rate, establishing a past consumption of six to twelve hours. He says he has completely stopped since the incident, after which he was prescribed a xanax every evening.
“I want to convince your court that we are not in human hazard”, pleaded Jean-Claude Guidicelli for the civil party, evoking a “sacrificial trial”, speaking of “Jeannot”, the nickname of the mayor, who “had makes the fight against the savage deposits his life and who died in battle. It is “the selfishness of the defendant, who did not want to waste time, which led to this tragedy”, he argued in a plea interrupted by the president. “It will never be enough for the civil party” in a drama where the “witnesses confirm the course of the drama as described by the defendant”. It is true that during this hearing, facts, sadly recounted at the beginning of this article, were only briefly discussed. But could it be otherwise, finally, in a case relating in substance to a fatal and nevertheless banal traffic accident, such as there are nearly 900 per year ?
“This atmosphere terrified us”
Pascal Zecchini, lawyer for the mayor’s widow, also tried to place the debate on the terrain of emotion and “of a society where it is no longer possible to make the slightest remark”, pressing “without go into the scabrous details” on “the traces of blood found on the tire”.
At the time of the requisitions, the prosecutor first bowed to “the courage and dedication of this elected official who honored his function”. Then soberly qualified “an act which is negligence, recklessness and failure, not a deliberate aggression. But involuntary is not exonerating”. And to ask for 3 years in prison, including one year, as well as the cancellation of the driving license and the prohibition to iron it for a period of six months.
“We were a little terrified at the thought of this trial,” began Alain Baduel, lawyer for L. “This trial was to become the emblem of violence against elected officials. In September 2019, the government was taking action as a result of this case. My client was treated as a murderer on social networks, and an assassin on TV sets. This atmosphere terrified us, ”he delivered. This case is that of “a kid who was doubly wrong on August 5”, he concluded, rather reassured by the requisitions. Judgment will be rendered on March 18.
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