In Coutances,
The trial of the deputy mayor of Saint-Côme-du-Mont, found in a field with his hands and feet punctured by nails on November 9, and suspected of "
denunciation of imaginary crimes and misdemeanors
" for other facts dating back to spring, was postponed to September 6.
This umpteenth twist in the soap opera "Bernard Denis" is not a surprise.
The hypothesis of a dismissal rustled in the corridors of the Coutances courthouse for several days.
Read alsoMayor found in a field with his hands and heels nailed: sulfur and suspicion
The Public Prosecutor Michaël Giraudet justified this request for dismissal by the fact that "
the new investigation carried out in November with the research brigade of Saint-Lô and Caen was not finished
".
“
Mr. Denis assures us that the case of the shootings against his utility vehicle in May and the attack in November are linked.
Either the survey shows it.
Either, on the contrary, we will end up with new prosecutions
, ”summarized the magistrate of the public prosecutor’s office.
Lawyer for the mayor (absent from the hearing), Me Amélie Marchand-Millier welcomed this dismissal.
"
My client maintains that he is a victim: if the case of the nailer is proven, then it will bring down the first
," she said.
Victim or storyteller?
We will therefore have to wait a while longer before the court rules and thus puts an end to the speculations, sometimes passionate, which today go beyond the Carentan marshes.
In May 2022, Bernard Denis claimed to have received several pellet impacts on his utility, then ensuring "
pay [son] support for President Macron
".
At the time, the department's parliamentarians gave him their support.
Especially since this complaint followed previous ones filed a few months earlier and where the city councilor had already denounced - still for political reasons, according to him - the fire in his garage, the degradation of vehicles or even anonymous letters with death threats.
“
When I heard the shots, I immediately thought of the shotgun blast I had been promised.
Since then, my family has asked me to stop politics, ”
he explained to
Figaro,
a few days after the impact on his van.
Faced with the extent of the means deployed by the investigators, the elected official had ended up admitting to having invented the shootings against his vehicle, while the prosecution had dismissed the previous complaints.
Bernard Denis had been summoned on November 23 for an appearance in preliminary recognition of guilt.
But two weeks before this legal meeting, he suffered a new "attack" with ... the pneumatic nailer.
The elected official then retracted, saying that the two cases – the shootings at his vehicle and the physical assault – were linked.
A few days after this back-pedalling, we learned that he had been hospitalized after a suicide attempt.