Sophie Patterson-Spatz had accused the Minister of the Interior of having asked him for a sexual intercourse in exchange for his support in a legal case.
MO12345LEMONDE With AFP
The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed, Tuesday, January 24, the dismissal rendered in July 2022 in favor of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, accused of rape by Sophie Patterson-Spatz, who had filed a appeal against this decision.
During a closed hearing on December 13, in the absence of the two protagonists, the general prosecutor’s office had requested confirmation of the dismissal. In his written requisitions consulted by the France-Presse agency, the public prosecutor dismissed “the hypothesis of false or malicious accusations” of M me patterson-spatz, but estimated that “he cannot be considered that [she] did not consent to sexual act “.
The complainant’s lawyer, Elodie Tuaillon-Hibon, evoked on the contrary a “surprise rape” and a “extorted” sexual intercourse, “neither free nor consented”. The lawyer had said her wish to have “finally entitled to a little justice”, because “the elements for rape are present in the file”. The lawyers of the Minister of the Interior, Pierre-Olivier Sur and Mathias Chichportich, had not wished to react.
SMS exchange
M me Patterson-Spatz, 50, filed a first rape complaint against Mr. Darmanin in the spring of 2017, for facts that would have occurred in Paris in 2009. She had been Decided to file a complaint after arriving at the government. After surveys classified three times and procedural troubles, M me Patterson-Spatz had obtained in the summer 2020 the designation of an investigating judge to examine his accusations.
In 2009, the complainant addressed Gérald Darmanin, then project manager at the UMP legal affairs department (party who has since become the Republicans since), to obtain support when she wished to have a condemnation revised from 2005 for blackmail and malicious calls for an ex-companion. According to her, he had made her shive away during an evening his possible support by a letter which he undertook to write to the Chancellery, and had asked in exchange for sex.
The complainant and the Minister both recognize sexual intercourse, but Sophie Patterson-Spatz considers that he was forced to “go to the pan” with Mr. Darmanin when the one, then 26 years old, would have told him : “You too will have to help me.” For his part, the Minister of the Interior claims to have “sold to the charms” of a complainant “enterprising”.
An exchange of SMS between them nine months later is at the heart of the file. M me patterson-spatz writes to him: “Abuse his position. For my part, it is to be a dirty idiot. (…) When you know the effort I needed for Kiss with you. To take care of my file. “Mr. Darmanin answers:” You are right, I’m probably a dirty idiot. How to make me forgive? “
” sincerity “of the complainant
The investigating judge had placed Mr. Darmanin under the status of witness assisted in December 2020 and then confronted the Minister and the complainant for nine hours in March, before rendering a dismissal. In her July prescription, she noted as the public prosecutor’s office that “the sincerity of the declarations” of Sophie Patterson-Spatz as to rape “cannot be called into question”. However, she added that the complainant had “deliberately chose to have sex with him in order to see her criminal affair re -murdered”.
Gérald Darmanin was able to legitimately misunderstanding the intentions “of the complainant, even if in the SMS” he implicitly admits that he was able to take advantage of the situation “, advanced the investigating judge. “The law does not be confused with morality,” she said, however, believing that the complainant was “consenting to the law”.
In July 2020, Gérald Darmanin said he was “quiet as Baptiste” concerning these accusations, evoking facts dating back to his “young man’s life”. A resident of Tourcoing (North) also accused Mr. Darmanin of having forced sex in exchange for accommodation and employment. The survey was ranked without follow -up in 2018.
Since his accession to the Ministry of the Interior, in July 2020, Mr. Darmanin has been hated by many feminist voices, who consider that his presence Place Beauvau is abnormal.