The great unpacking continued.
The three officials of the municipal police (PM) of Bussy-Saint-Georges were finally able to explain themselves, this Thursday, before the criminal court of Meaux.
These three men, aged 42 to 56, were tried for moral harassment, racist insult, witness tampering and obstruction of the exercise of the right to organize.
They had never been able to give their version in this affair which pits them against other police officers.
The boss of the PM expressed his feelings: “It was a whole career of loyal service under the flag which was destroyed.
"
The trial had opened… on March 11, but the debates were so drawn out - until 4:10 am - that the hearing had been postponed continuously to this Thursday.
It was to end in the night.
At 9 p.m., Deputy Prosecutor Hervé Tétier requested an 18-month suspended prison sentence against the trio, with deprivation of the right to be elected and ban from exercising the activity of municipal police for a period of five years.
The judgment could be reserved overnight.
The mayor, cited as a witness, absent because hospitalized
During the first day of the hearing, the judges had heard the 19 agents and police officers - as well as the president of the Union for the defense of the municipal police - who denounce pressure, disparaging remarks, racist reflections or even unfair sanctions.
The witnesses, called by the defense, remained in a separate room, without having been heard.
Thursday morning, four of them testified.
The mayor (LR) Yann Dubosc - cited as a witness - was absent, due to hospitalization.
"I have never seen or heard of harassment," assured the current deputy director general in charge of human resources at the town hall.
Before evoking "a complicated political context, with different clans linked to the former mayor and the former mayoress".
He made no secret of maintaining a friendship with the defendants and reassured the judges: “I manage to remain lucid.
"
A police officer testified that she had found no harassment and described "a heavy atmosphere" in the service, since her colleagues learned of her testimony in court.
Another policeman said he was "confused by some victims", whom he "never saw in distress".
Before describing "a split between friends and a power struggle".
Charges disputed by the defendants
The three defendants responded point by point to the charges against them.
President Joëlle Nahon asked the boss of the PM if he could have qualified such and such an agent as "bitch, bitch, dwarf, Hobbit or even woodlouse".
Negative response.
The deputy prosecutor Hervé Tétier wanted to know if an agent "who dozes off during his break, that justifies a report".
Yes, when you have your feet on the table and you snore.
"
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His deputy, head of the urban body - denounced for putting "pressure blows" - recalled that he had "never raised his voice": "When I was told that something was wrong, I was going. check.
When people fault the service, they must be called to order.
When it's repetitive, you have to reframe.
The only complaint I can have is that I didn't have time to listen.
"
This father of two police officers explained how the procedure had affected him, he who joined the “big family” of the police “by vocation” in 1991. He read a letter in which he spoke of shame and disappointment of having been implicated by colleagues.
"There have always been concerns in this police"
As for the second deputy, in particular prosecuted for gritty remarks, he hammered that he was "neither racist nor sexist", highlighting elements of his personal life demonstrating his tolerance: "I will not claim not to have made a mistake.
I may have offended people.
There have always been concerns with this policy.
"
The lawyer for the civil parties, Me Thibault de Montbrial, recalled that moral harassment is difficult to judge: “We are constantly in a gray area.
If it is light gray, there is a malfunction, if it is dark gray, it is a misdemeanor.
"
Coming back to the flowery vocabulary that would have punctuated certain remarks, he recalled: “Bash is only possible between people of the same hierarchical level, when everything is going well.
And I will add between two people of the same sex.
"
