There was the trial which collapsed in 2017 after numerous court incidents.
Weakened, the president of the Assize Court had to return the case after a week.
Then there was the one-month river trial in 2018 at the end of which Georges Tron, 63, mayor (LR) of Draveil (Essonne), former secretary of state of the Fillon government (from March 2010 to May 2011) and his former cultural assistant Brigitte Gruel, also 63, had been acquitted.
But the general prosecutor had appealed against the verdict of the Assize Court of Seine-Saint-Denis where the hearing had been disoriented.
From this Tuesday, opens a new episode of this case of rape and alleged sexual assault on two former collaborators of the elected official with the trial of the Paris Assize Court of Appeal.
For four weeks, the jurors will hear the same 59 witnesses who will describe the atmosphere reigning at the town hall of Draveil at the time of the facts denounced, and describe the personality and behavior of the first city councilor of this suburban town of 29,000. inhabitants.
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Next to the chosen one, in defense, a new lawyer will be installed to replace Eric Dupond-Moretti, who has become Minister of Justice: Me Solange Doumic, known for having cracked Guy Georges, the serial killer in eastern Paris , in the midst of an assize trial.
It was in March 2001. She will plead the acquittal alongside Me Antoine Vey, former partner of the Keeper of the Seals, present in Bobigny.
"A general hypersexualized climate"
If the Assize Court of Seine-Saint-Denis considered in 2018 that "it has never been reported proof of a constraint", the jurors considered that the protagonists of the case "have participated in sexual intercourse in the presence of third parties in a general hypersexualized climate ”.
This conviction was forged in the light of elements of the decor of the Château de Villiers, where the all-powerful mayor of Draveil, described during the debates, was working at the time.
The office has three entrances with padded doors from the inside.
One communicates with its secretariat, another gives onto a corridor and a last gives access to a room leading to a spiral staircase, which allows you to slip away as if through a hidden passage.
There is also a bar provided with many sweet wines, sofas and this “thick carpet on which we sat to sign the initials”, had delivered this ex-collaborator during the trial of 2018. “It was more comfortable than on the seats.
"
"My client maintains that she was raped by Georges Tron"
According to our information, Georges Tron's defense will attempt to demonstrate that this “hypersexualization” is not the act of the accused and that “the file is empty”.
Because the lawyers of the elected, who did not wish to speak, do not understand how the prosecution was able to initially, during the investigation, support the dismissal and then request six and four years in prison against Georges Tron and Brigitte Gruel.
The same incomprehension animates them as for the appeal of the public prosecutor.
“My client has maintained, for ten years and without varying an iota, that she was raped by Georges Tron with the complicity of Brigitte Gruel.
She waits until they are declared guilty, wishing not the death of the sinner, but a suitable sanction, ”summarizes Me Vincent Ollivier, lawyer for Virginie Ettel, one of the two plaintiffs.
If she has a lot of hope in this appeal trial, the latter will not attend in full.
“She does not have the financial means to stay so long in Paris.
She will come on the days of her audition.
If necessary, we will request the use of videoconferencing, ”explains Me Ollivier, who will represent her at the hearing with Me Laure Heinich.
“She suffered threats.
His life fell apart "
The lawyer also recalls the consequences of this case on Virginie Ettel: “For ten years, she has suffered threats and pressures.
His life crumbled.
Currently, she lives with her mother, sees little of her children, has no work or income.
In this case, Madame Ettel sometimes has the impression of being in defense!
It is not the bad woman who would have broken the career of a promising politician, it is a victim, it is time for justice to recognize it.
"
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Same will with Eva Loubrieu, the second complainant.
"My client is impatient for her victim status to be finally recognized", indicates Me Loïc Guérin, her lawyer.
According to our information, Advocate General Jean-Christophe Muller should support the prosecution.
The case, revealed by Le Parisien - Today in France, had splashed Georges Tron in May 2011, in the midst of the DSK scandal.
He had to resign from his government post and it cost him his re-election in the 2012 legislative election.
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The two complainants then recount in their complaint, which marks the beginning of the investigation, how they met the elected official at his parliamentary office and how he would have explained to them that he had been practicing plantar reflexology for ten years.
Stories which describe how, from the feet, it would have passed to other places of the body, sometimes in the presence of Brigitte Gruel.
"Mrs. Gruel will keep the position she has always had and reaffirm her innocence", underlines Me Frank Natali, the lawyer of the accused.
Since the affair broke out, Georges Tron has always claimed his innocence and maintained that it was a plot hatched by local executives of the National Front (RN today) who were in opposition to Draveil.
This thesis will be discussed at length during this trial.
The verdict is expected on February 12.