It was the last resort.
The Court of Cassation rendered its decision this Wednesday on the appeal filed by Sophie Patterson-Spatz after the dismissal of the case, confirmed on appeal, rendered in favor of Gérald Darmanin whom she accuses of rape, which he contests.
The Minister of the Interior is therefore definitively exonerated in this affair.
During the non-public hearing before the highest judicial court on February 17, both the rapporteur and the advocate general concluded that the complainant's appeal was rejected, two sources close to the case indicated.
Sophie Patterson-Spatz, 52, has accused Gérald Darmanin of raping her in 2009 since spring 2017. At the time, she contacted him as a project manager in the legal affairs department of the UMP (now LR), to obtain support in the review of a conviction in 2005 for blackmail and malicious calls against a former companion.
“You too will have to help me”
According to her, Gérald Darmanin had dangled his possible support to her during an evening in Paris via a letter to the Chancellery, and had asked for a sexual relationship in exchange.
Both admit to having had sexual intercourse.
But Sophie Patterson-Spatz believes she was forced to “go to the pan” when Gérald Darmanin, then 26 years old, told her: “You too will have to help me.
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For Me Tuaillon-Hibon, the complainant's lawyer, it is a “surprise rape” and an “extorted” sexual relationship, “neither free nor consensual”.
For his part, the Minister of the Interior had claimed during the procedure to have “given in to the charms” of an “enterprising” complainant.
After investigations closed three times, Sophie Patterson-Spatz obtained the appointment of an investigating judge in the summer of 2020.
Gérald Darmanin was not indicted and benefited from a dismissal of the case in July 2022, confirmed by the investigating chamber in January 2023. The complainant then filed an appeal on points of law.