A week after the serious road accident he caused under the influence of cocaine, Pierre Palmade was indicted on Friday February 17 for manslaughter, the public prosecutor of Melun announced in the evening. . He is "under house arrest under an electronic bracelet in a hospital addiction service", according to a press release from the prosecution issued at the end of the afternoon. The public prosecutor, Jean-Michel Bourlès, who had requested his placement in pre-trial detention, added to appeal the decision rendered by the judge of freedoms and detention.
On Friday February 10, on a departmental road in Seine-et-Marne, the actor, who tested positive for cocaine, was driving a car that hit another vehicle. In addition to the actor, the accident caused three serious injuries: a man, his son and his pregnant sister-in-law, who lost her baby. "The driver and his 6-year-old son are still hospitalized in intensive care in serious condition," the Melun prosecutor said on Friday.
Pierre Palmade was initially hospitalized in Kremlin-Bicêtre before being transferred on February 15 to the Melun hospital center to be heard by investigators under police custody. He "admitted to having used cocaine as well as synthetic drugs before driving" and "indicated having no specific memory of the circumstances of the accident", added the prosecutor in a press release.
Two men placed under assisted witness status
Two other men were presented to the investigating judge on Friday for "failure to assist a person in danger" and placed by the latter under the status of "assisted witness": a 33-year-old Moroccan and a 34-year-old Parisian suspected of being passengers in Pierre Palmade's car and having left the scene shortly after the accident.
The first had been arrested in the early morning, Wednesday, in Clichy-la-Garenne (Hauts-de-Seine). The second went to the Melun police station late Wednesday afternoon, accompanied by his lawyer. “They confirmed that they fled before help arrived. They had also consumed narcotics, "said the prosecutor, who requested their placement under judicial supervision.
According to the first elements of the investigation communicated by the prosecution, the vehicle driven by Pierre Palmade had struck on February 10 a car which was coming in the opposite direction near Villiers-en-Bière, in the south of Seine-et-Marne, for an undetermined reason.
On board this Renault Megane, a 38-year-old Seine-et-Marnais, his 6-year-old son and his 27-year-old sister-in-law. The vital prognosis of the woman, six and a half months pregnant at the time of the accident, is no longer engaged. The investigation was opened for "manslaughter" to determine if the child had died before delivery or if he lived a few seconds before his death. According to Jean-Michel Bourlès, "the autopsy performed did not establish whether this child was born alive. Further expertise has been ordered on this point".
Pierre Palmade was sentenced in 1995 for cocaine use. In 2019, he was taken into custody for use and acquisition of narcotics after being falsely accused of rape.
