A police officer whose violence against two minors in the 19th arrondissement of Paris was reported by journalist Valentin Gendrot in Policean undercover book, will soon be tried by a criminal court, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned from a source close to the case, on Monday, November 4.
According to this information also revealed by Half partOn Thursday, two investigating judges ordered the referral to trial of Marc F., 36, for intentional violence by a public authority holder without total incapacity for work (ITT), a crime punishable by three years in prison.
Based on elements from the book. Police (ed. Goutte d’Or, 2020), written by Valentin Gendrot, then reports from the police headquarters but also from deputy Danièle Obono (La France insoumise), a first investigation was opened, entrusted to the judges in May 2021 .
The journalist recounted his infiltration as a security assistant at the 19th arrondissement police station in Paris in 2019, and described “beatings”racist and homophobic insults, but also lack of resources, suicides and staff unrest.
“False” PV
In their order consulted by AFP, the two judges explain that “the investigation did not allow us to specifically corroborate the description of the violence made by Valentin Gendrot, in particular due to the lack of identification of the people who could have been subjected to the reported ill-treatment”with the exception of the violence against two brothers in April 2019, which will be the focus of the upcoming trial.
The younger of the two, who would have received “little slaps”He did not respond to investigators. The great one told him that he had received “a potato” in the face in a police vehicle and then a “hard slap” at the police station. In a clandestine recording made at that time by Valentin Gendrot, Marc F. also spoke of a “dad”.
But immediately after the arrest, “Hand,” the nickname of this peacemaker, filed a complaint for contempt and aggravated threats. The elder of the two brothers had been taken into police custody and had also filed a complaint of violence.
Valentin Gendrot tells in the book how a report (PV) “lying” It was then written for “Accuse the child and acquit him” the policeman The journalist will also incriminate the teenager during an internal police investigation, he defended him to AFP in 2020. “an extremely complicated decision” taken to power “Report a thousand other blunders of this type”. He did not comment on this referral to trial on Monday.
“Justice, to protect a police officer, can go very far”
“The order legitimizes the seriousness of Mr. Gendrot’s work, but his defense regrets it” that this PV “they will not be subject to prosecution for falsification when we know the consequences of this type of reports”commented Mᵉ Romain Boulet, lawyer for the journalist and the publisher.
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“The sound recording of a public forgery, although made by Valentin Gendrot, was not enough for the courts to implicate a police officer. Therefore, we can say that justice, to protect a police officer, can go very far.”commented Geoffrey Le Guilcher, co-founder of Goutte d’Or editions.
The order for reference certainly points out that the beatings are not mentioned in the report jointly signed by the police officers who participated in the intervention, but states that its “Collective, imprecise and fragmented writing does not allow us to retain [des] sufficient burdens for the individual responsibility of each signatory (…), although it cannot be excluded that Marc F., for his part, has delivered a minimalist version”.
Regarding the acts of violence that will be judged on a date not yet determined, Marc F. generally defended himself during the investigation, evoking the need to control those involved. He had described Valentin Gendrot’s book as“directed and deceptive”. Asked, his lawyer did not respond to AFP.
An administrative investigation led to a three-day suspension of exclusion for Marc F. and reprimands for three other officers, in connection with the writing of the controversial report. Officers at this police station have been the subject of other accusations of violence.
