The mayor of Thizy-les-Bourgs (Rhône) Martin Sotton, 34, was sentenced on Monday April 24 by the criminal court of Villefranche-sur-Saône (Rhône) to six months in prison, suspended, for provocation of minors to the consumption of alcohol and complicity in driving a vehicle without a licence.
The elected representative of this municipality of 6,000 inhabitants was also sentenced to an additional penalty of prohibition of civic, civil and family rights for a period of one year.
“
This additional sentence, when it is final, should interrupt his mandate as mayor
”, estimated Me Catherine Raynaud, lawyer for a civil party.
The court also pronounced an obligation of care, as well as a prohibition of contact with the three minors concerned by the case.
"Disappointments" and "regrets"
Municipal councilor since 2008, then mayor following former justice minister Michel Mercier, for whom he was a parliamentary assistant, Martin Sotton quickly left the courthouse.
Without saying either if he intended to appeal the decision, or if he thought to keep his chair as mayor, from which he never intended to resign when the affair broke out.
"
I look at this with a lot of disappointment and regret, I know that my behavior was not adapted
," said the defendant at the hearing, where he admitted the facts without really providing an explanation.
These date back to December 2021, reported by the educators of a home for minors in difficulty, worried about the words of one of their residents.
Four teenagers explained that they had consumed a lot of alcohol during a party at the mayor's home at Christmas.
A minor driving
Too drunk to drive back, the chosen one had left the wheel of his car to a minor, without a license, to return home.
An identical scene was repeated two days later at the home, the mayor falling asleep this time on a sofa in the establishment.
A minor had warned the gendarmerie that the chosen one was unable to drive.
Martin Sotton admitted the facts, blaming alcohol for his "
lack of judgment
" and "
poor decisions
".
The prosecution had requested four months of suspended prison sentence and probation, with obligation of care, and prohibition to come into contact with the minors of the home, without requiring an additional penalty of prohibition of civil rights.
Defense lawyer Me Éric Debiesse pleaded that the facts had “
no connection with the exercise of the elective mandate
”.
