"
He is a police officer but he embodies insecurity
": the prosecution requested Friday in Marseille 18 months suspended prison sentence against an investigator from a financial squad tried for theft, violence and extortion.
Two years of ban from exercising any function in the police were also demanded by the prosecutor Anne Lezer who denounced "
unacceptable actions
" and "
a mixture of genres that tarnishes the image of the police
".
To read also: After the filmed violence, the police put to the test of suspicion
The Marseille peacekeeper, now assigned to the Mandates Brigade, had lent his assistance to a friend in order to recover unpaid rents from a restaurateur in Aubagne.
In the summer of 2018, the policeman and his group leader went with his friend, owner of the walls, to the restaurant to find common ground.
This intervention did not give rise to a handrail, was surprised the president of the court Cécile Pendariès.
"Descent into hell"
In January 2019, the policeman returns alone, strikes and threatens the restaurant owner, from whom he steals 3000 euros, assures the latter, then seized with unease.
The firefighters intervene and one of them will report having had the impression that the restaurateur was under pressure.
The next day, the restaurateur lodged a complaint against the police officer whose identity he did not know, a complaint of which the official was not immediately informed.
On April 3, 2019, the owner of the walls in turn lodged a complaint against the restorer for breach of trust causing the restorer to be placed in police custody a few days later.
Read also: The rise in violence is fueling tensions between judges and police
The police officer had then obtained the authorization of the public prosecutor's office for a forcible arrest at home while one of his superiors, on leave, had previously prohibited him from any measure of custody for a dispute that he considered purely commercial. But at the time of his arrest, the restaurant owner recognizes the police officer, who had come to arrest him, as the one who had hit and threatened him a few months earlier, prompting immediate referral to the General Inspectorate of the National Police.
"
I did my job, we wanted to get out of this file quickly
", defended the defendant assuring that he wanted to "
render service without ulterior motives
". “
He experienced a real descent into hell. If he had not filed a complaint the day after his assault, we would never have believed it,
”noted the restaurant owner's lawyer, Clément Dalançon. The lawyer of the accused Frédéric Coffano denounced the “
variable geometry declarations
” of the restorer. The judgment will be rendered on July 2.
