The former socialist mayor of Pontault-Combault (Seine-et-Marne), Monique Delessard, has been on trial since Thursday before the Paris Assize Court. She is accused of having signed a false deed fifteen years ago to marry her predecessor on the verge of death.
The facts date back to October 30, 2007. Monique Delessard, then the first assistant, signs a marriage certificate linking the mayor of Pontault-Combault Jacques Heuclin to Armelle Reffait, his concubine with whom he has a daughter. On the date of the marriage certificate, presumably signed at Jacques Heuclin’s home, the “groom” was hospitalized in Paris, in a coma, intubated and not transportable. He will die the next day.
The deception had been highlighted by a complaint filed by three daughters of Jacques Heuclin, born of a first union, who wanted to obtain the annulment of the fraudulent marriage.
Sentenced in Melun in 2009 to two months of imprisonment with suspension of the sentence, then on appeal in Paris in 2010 to fifteen months with suspension of sentence and a sentence of ineligibility, the elected official had appealed to the cassation, believing that the facts that are was accused of having constituted a crime and not a crime and therefore deserved to be tried before an assize court. The Court of Cassation had overturned his sentence in 2011 and the case was referred to the Assizes of Paris.
Jacques Heuclin’s former chief of staff, Serge Crippa, and a former deputy mayor, Gérard Briaud, who had signed the marriage certificate as witnesses, were sentenced by the Paris Court of Appeal to twelve and six months suspension respectively. of the penalty.
The municipal secretary, who had falsified the mayor’s signature, was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with suspended sentence.
As for the widow, Armelle Reffait, she had been sentenced to ten months’ imprisonment with suspended sentence. The doctor who had written a false medical certificate to obtain an “in extremis” marriage procedure had been released.
Today, at 73, Monique Delessard faces fifteen years of imprisonment for falsification of public writings by a person in charge of a public service mission. After her interrogation, she claims to have “signed this deed in good faith, without thinking it could pose a problem”. The verdict is expected on Friday.
Sources: AFP
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