These are two worlds used to opposing each other during hearings, on either side of the bar.
More rarely on the bench of defendants and that of civil parties.
On March 22, the Criminal Court of Bordeaux (Gironde) will study a case of "threats and acts of intimidation against persons exercising a public function" and "harassment".
The alleged perpetrator: Olivier Le Mailloux, lawyer at the Marseille bar (Bouches-du-Rhône).
The plaintiff: a deputy of the prosecutor of Bordeaux.
The decor: the professional social network LinkedIn.
Here again, a world without waves.
Habitually.
The two have only crossed paths once in real life.
This story begins August 23, 2018. A notification arrives on the cell phone of the prosecutor.
It is 7:25 p.m.
On the other side of the screen, Olivier Le Mailloux, former member of the council of the order, registered with the Marseille bar.
Rebellious wick and dark gaze on the profile picture.
In black and white.
Contacted by Le Parisien - Today in France, the magistrate explains that she wanted, at that time, to create an inter-professional association bringing together magistrates, lawyers, bailiffs ... The idea: to allow exchanges to improve the functioning of the justice.
The lawyer says he's interested.
He presents himself as a constitutionalist and proposes to support a priority question of constitutionality (QPC), filed by the magistrate on the independence of the judiciary.
"He offered me his free competition", relates the substitute.
But another law firm, already in charge of the brief, does not agree.
Olivier Le Mailloux persists and nevertheless files a brief.
"My adored prosecutor"
New messages arrive in September 2018. The tone, initially professional, slowly slips into a more equivocal tone.
“My beloved prosecutor,” he wrote.
For Valentine's Day, he sends heart emojis.
The messages are on fire.
But in June 2019, the epistolary relationship ends.
“At that time, everyone understood that it had to stop,” continues the substitute.
But a month later, it is an anonymous letter arriving at his home which will remind the lawyer in good memory of the magistrate.
In this letter, the magistrate learns that one of the people who worked on the brief filed by Me Le Mailloux would have been stationed in the office of the Keeper of the Seals at the time when an administrative sanction had been pronounced against her.
She calls him to find out more.
"There, he got angry and threatened me," she says.
A witness will confirm what the magistrate heard.
At the end of the phone, the lawyer says: "If you distribute this letter, I will not hesitate to travel 1000 km to stick one to you."
He also tells her that he could break his career.
"I tried to remind him that he was addressing a magistrate," resumes the prosecutor.
She then seizes the president of Marseille without further action.
For his part, Olivier Le Mailloux replied by writing to his chairman that the substitute seeks to harm him and by affirming that it was she who had contacted him first on LinkedIn.
In this correspondence, he brings many elements that he obtained by having briefly assisted the magistrate.
Anonymous calls
At her home, from September 2019, the substitute began to receive anonymous calls.
She files a complaint against X for the malicious calls and for threats against Olivier Le Mailloux.
In August 2020, wishing to devote herself to something else, she decided to withdraw her complaint.
But on November 19, 2020, a new SMS from Olivier Le Mailloux made the magistrate's phone vibrate.
He accuses her of having "screwed up" his life.
Because in the meantime, he has lived through a separation.
On January 5, 2021, it is to the Attorney General of Bordeaux, the hierarchical superior of the deputy, that he writes.
In this correspondence, he says that she has "fragile mental health" and that it seems to him "opportune that a medical examination can be carried out" against her.
He also claims that the prosecutor got in touch with his partner.
A bailiff's report shows that she actually received two text messages from the lawyer's companion, to which she never replied.
She therefore decides on a direct citation procedure to quickly settle this conflict.
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According to Me Arash Derambarsh, the magistrate's lawyer, her client “was destabilized, threatened and harassed.
She is on sick leave due to unprecedented violence against her ”.
Joined by Le Parisien - Today in France, Olivier Le Mailloux, he did not wish to comment.
