This is the legal outcome that relatives of the victims hoped for.
Two years after the accident which cost the life of a retired couple in Bourgoin-Jallieu in Isère, three gendarmes have just been indicted for "non-obstacle to the commission of an offense" by a judge. Grenoble instruction.
Justice accuses them of not having intervened to prevent one of their colleagues from getting behind the wheel of his vehicle, with 2.54 g of alcohol in his blood.
On February 26, 2019, on a departmental road, Loïc D., 35, hit from the rear and at high speed the vehicle of Geneviève and Florencio Duron, 69 and 71, who had not survived the impact.
The driver, tried in immediate appearance on February 28, 2019 by the Bourgoin-Jallieu criminal court, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and immediately imprisoned.
He has since been removed from the gendarmerie.
But the family of the victims had estimated that four other gendarmes (3 men and a woman), who had drunk a good part of the afternoon with their colleague in a bar-restaurant of Villefontaine, had, them also, a responsibility in This drama.
Even though all these soldiers were not on duty on the day of the accident.
The children of the retired couple killed had lodged a complaint in April 2019 for "manslaughter" and "non-prevention of crime", targeting the four fellow police drivers.
"We gave him a license to kill"
Their determination to go through with this issue has therefore just paid off.
Supported by Me Hervé Gerbi, Grenoble lawyer known for his pugnacity, the Duron family has finally been heard by the courts.
Two years after the terrible accident which claimed the lives of Geneviève and Florencio.
“These examinations are a great satisfaction for us.
Even if it was long, very long.
Today, we are starting to regain confidence in the courts, ”reacts Céline Duron, daughter of the retired couple.
According to her, the death of her parents could have been avoided: “If one of the gendarmes, who drank all afternoon with the driver, had intervened to prevent him from getting behind the wheel of his powerful Hyundai 275 horses, my parents would still be with us.
Their car was literally crushed.
They had no chance of getting out, ”says Céline Duron.
These gendarmes, by their profession, she points out, were aware of the consequences of alcohol on the road.
“Yet that day, they let their colleague drive away drunk in his car.
One of them even ended up in the passenger seat, in the driver's vehicle.
And with their two children in the back.
And he let his colleague drive for several kilometers, at an excessive speed, while he skidded in the roundabouts.
Until the final impact which caused the death of my parents, ”continues the daughter of the retired couple.
For Olivier Duron, one of the sons of Geneviève Florencio, these indictments are "logical when we examine the behavior of these gendarmes and especially their non-reaction".
He further emphasizes that the driver “had almost 3 g of alcohol in his blood and was close to ethyl coma.
His colleagues could not therefore ignore his alcoholism.
He had drunk several pints of beer during that afternoon of drinking ”.
His sister, Céline, has even harsher words: “By letting him go, we gave him a license to kill.
Given the condition of the driver, the accident was inevitable.
What happened is therefore unacceptable.
"
"Make think all the people who let go drunk drivers on the road"
In June 2019, the Villefontaine bar-restaurant in which the driver was alcoholic had been administratively closed for two months by the prefecture, "for having served alcohol to a clearly intoxicated customer, which the establishment did not could ignore ”.
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For Me Hervé Gerbi, lawyer for the Duron family, “these indictments can be considered as a breakthrough with forceps because my clients have been fighting with determination for two years now to have the responsibility of these gendarmes recognized.
While all the elements were already in the file just after the accident ”.
And Céline Duron to recall that the prosecutor of Bourgoin-Jallieu “had affirmed a few days after the tragedy that the four colleagues of the driver had only a moral responsibility, and not penal in this affair.
The indictment of three of the gendarmes therefore does not meet its analysis, ”notes the daughter of the victims.
Me Hervé Gerbi had also obtained the change of scenery of the Bourgoin-Jallieu court file at the Grenoble court.
For the Grenoble lawyer, “this is an emblematic case to which the courts must set an example.
This case should indeed make think all the people who let go drunk drivers on the road, including if these people are gendarmes.
We will therefore be very vigilant on the continuation of this file ”.
The three gendarmes indicted were left free, without judicial control.
Their lawyers were not immediately reachable.
A fourth gendarme will be summoned later by the courts.
