Toulouse: without a license, he had taken the highway in the wrong direction, he was sentenced to three years in prison
The 24-year-old driver who took the A64 in the opposite direction overnight from Monday to Tuesday in an attempt to shake off the police was sentenced to three years in prison, including one year suspended.
“Whether we kill someone or we are killed, that’s not why we joined the police”, says at the bar of the Toulouse Criminal Court, one of the police officers from the Bac of Toulouse victims of Pierre*.
This 24-year-old salesman was tried on Thursday August 11 for acts of refusal to comply which quickly slipped into a “hallucinating” chase, as the public prosecutor Christophe Raoult will define it later. Take them back to the night of Monday to Tuesday, the patrol of the BAC Right Bank is near the avenue des Minimes, when, around 2 o’clock in the morning, she sees a vehicle spinning in the wrong direction, more than 100 km / h and with the lights off. After four red lights crossed, the police engage in a chase which will end on the A64, at the exit of Roques. The patrol, joined by two other law enforcement vehicles, succeeded in arresting the driver only after four shots of rubber defense bullets and two shots of live ammunition. The vehicle will stop on the highway, in the opposite direction on the left lane, constrained by the roadblock created by police vehicles, despite very dense traffic.
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All the ingredients for a perfect carnage
French law allows police officers to become civil parties in the event of aggravated refusal to comply. Me Laurent Boguet insists on the dangers incurred by his clients: “A society should not live in the anguish of meeting such a man on the road. All the ingredients for a perfect carnage were gathered. These police officers took the risk of get killed on a banal roadside check!” The civil parties seek compensation of €1,500 each. The public prosecutor is relentless in his indictment: “Frankly, it’s nonsense, he says to the defendant. “You must have such a hatred of Toulouse and their police to multiply so many voluntary faults! Your excuses are only opportunism.” He asks for three years in prison, two of which are firm, also taking into account the background of the young man. His license had indeed been canceled a few months before after a road accident.
Me Pierre Debuisson, lawyer for the defendant, explains the reasons which led the young man to such reckless conduct. Alcohol, the death of his father due to covid in 2021, from which he never recovered, but also an argument with two prostitutes before driving. “My client has made all the wrong choices possible, but he needs to be accompanied. He is intelligible for a reprieve, he has a job waiting for him and a career ahead of him.” Judges disagree. The defendant was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, one of which was suspended, and €12,000 in damages to the victims, “I never wanted to kill anyone”, added the defendant at the end of the trial.