The police took the defendant to the Alès court on Monday, February 3. MIDI LIBRE – CHARLES LEDUC
Convicted in the past before the Gard Assize Court, Pascal Arcadipane insulted and threatened soldiers from La Grand-Combe, not forgetting to spit on them. During his trial, this Monday, February 3, he said he was ashamed; the public prosecutor does not believe it.
The man who entered the dock of the Alès Criminal Court on Monday, February 3, is far from being unknown to the justice system. Pascal Arcadipane, now 46 years old and living in Salles-du-Gardon, has already been imprisoned several times; he was notably sentenced to 10 years in prison before the Gard Assize Court in December 2011 for the two carjackings of tourists that took place in Génolhac and Chambon in July 2009. This time, he must explain a litany of insults and threats against police officers from La Grand-Combe. The list provided by Cécile Baessa, the president of the hearing, is endless and illustrates the ordeal that the soldiers experienced for two hours: “Seventeen years in jail! You think you're dealing with a little ?”, “Ten years in security”, “You're a policeman; you're not a good man”, etc. He is also accused of having spat on them.
The president: “At no time do you come back down”
Initially, on Sunday February 2, around 11 a.m., the police intervened in Salles-du-Gardon for damage to an entrance door and came across the defendant throwing an individual to the ground. When the police separated them, he went “to lose his temper”, explains the president. Drunk, he focuses in particular on two young soldiers. The ordeal of the Grandcombiens drags on: when they drive the forty-year-old to the police station, then in front of the judicial police officer, and again to the hospital in Alès, where he spits and hits a soldier in the face and two others in the hands and clothes, and again in the car. “At no point do you come back down” , notes Cécile Baessa, dejected. “It's very complicated.”
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“I'm shocked at myself,” the defendant declared
In front of his judges, Pascal Arcadipane expressed his “feeling of injustice” when the police attacked him because, he said, he was the one who had been attacked first by the person he was with that Sunday. Regarding his behavior, he states: “I am shocked at myself, at everything I did. I was drunk; I got carried away. It is not my habit to talk like that.” Admitting to having “bad alcohol”, who finds himself in a state of relapse, indicates that he is in the process of treating his alcoholism. That he has never had any problems with the law since he was released from detention in 2018. And that he has been married for seven years: “That's what made me stop doing stupid things…”
Is he a tiger or a kitten?
The defendant assures that he is “a nice person”, that he is “not mean”, before demanding an electronic bracelet if he were to be convicted. “If I go back to detention, I'm going to waste my life like I did before…”, he predicts. But Abdelkrim Grini, the public prosecutor, is not softened and reminds us that this Cévenol “is not at his first attempt”. He continues: “This is not the alcohol trial; this is Mr. Arcadipane's trial […] I will not be fooled. After being a tiger, he is pretending to be a kitten.” The prosecutor is demanding 15 to 18 months in prison and a committal warrant.
The importance of “context”, according to the defense
In defense, Me Gabrielle Le Dréau emphasizes her client's efforts to reintegrate and wishes to discuss the “context”, alcohol consumption that “explains” what happened and the defendant's wife, who is “a pillar. Without this pillar, the sentence will be in vain. Today, he has a balance. We must not break this balance…”
He leaves with handcuffs on his wrists
Pascal Arcadipane returns to prison. The court sentences him to two years, one of which is suspended with probation, and issues a warrant for his arrest. While the police handcuff him to take him to the Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone remand center, he continues to try to make himself heard…
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