“Bron Mayor Harassed by Resident: Lyon Court Hearing Highlights Freedom of Expression Debate”

While he was intimidated many times at the start of his term, the mayor of Bron Jérémie Bréaud (LR) felt harassed by a resident. The elected official then filed a complaint in October 2021 and an investigation was opened. Postponed for the first time, the hearing was held this Tuesday, May 16 at the Lyon court.

“Political debate” or “unhealthy game”?

Between July 2021 and May 2022, a Brondillant sends 130 messages to the mayor, including 66 emails. Or a message every three days. “It’s a conversation, my client is not the only one talking, the mayor answers him”, defends M^e Savary, the defendant’s lawyer. According to the opposing party, “no other citizen sends him such a large volume of messages. We have left the political debate to enter an unhealthy game that affects the private sphere, ”considers M^e Aubert, recalling that the respondent was spotted “motionless” near the town hall on three occasions.

What makes say to the president of the court that “we feel a behavior which does not appear at all measured. Either you do indeed have a special relationship, or you seem to be having a fix on the mayor”.

“I regret that it went so far”

“I regret that it went so far, I was wrong to systematically respond to publications, concedes the 30-year-old, who does not hide his ambition for the municipal elections of 2026. But none of us weighed his words. We’re two big kids who play politics and don’t always agree. »

Sympathizer of the PS, this inhabitant “yet received a proposal from the mayor to go have a coffee in July 2021 then a request from friends on Facebook in October 2021”, pleads Charles Savary. “You don’t act like that with your harasser,” he adds, while denouncing a lack of objectivity in the investigation procedure.

The mayor requests a ban on contact

The mayor’s lawyer is asking for a ban on contacting the victim and his family, as well as compensation and reimbursement of legal costs. A request followed by the prosecutor, adding a fine of €3,000. “We are dealing with a crook, who has a particular relationship to the truth”, means the magistrate, referring to the five convictions for fraud or attempt between 2016 and 2020.

“The only imputable fact would be a degrading remark made in a private discussion. But we are being prosecuted for harassment, not for insult ”, insists Charles Savary, who claims to end the proceedings and the reimbursement of legal costs.

The deliberation will be delivered on June 20.