Stéphane Plaza will be tried this Wednesday for “habitual violence” after complaints from two former partners. Before the trial, the host’s defense is already pointing out questions of constitutionality.
Stéphane Plaza is due to appear before the Paris Criminal Court on Wednesday, August 28, following complaints filed by two of his former partners. On Monday, August 26, the host’s defense decided to file two priority questions of constitutionality. If accepted by the court, they could undermine the prosecution and lead to the hearing being postponed to a later date.
The star of the M6 channel will be tried for “habitual violence by a partner resulting in incapacity for work for more than 8 days” and it is precisely on this term that Stéphane Plaza’s lawyers are basing their counterattack, according to information from Le Parisien. One of the two priority questions of constitutionality concerns, in fact, the method of calculating the number of days of total incapacity for work (ITT) granted to the two victims. A fundamental notion that could decide the seriousness of the offense and therefore the sentence incurred by the accused. If the period of ITT is less than 8 days, the sentence would be reduced to a maximum of five years of imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros, half less than what the defendant is currently facing.
The defense plans to base its argument on the certificate issued to one of the plaintiffs indicating a period of ITT “greater than eight days”. According to Carlo Alberto Brusa, one of Stéphane Plaza’s lawyers, this is a concept that “is not legally defined and varies according to case law, so it is not sufficiently clear and precise to meet the requirements of legality of offenses and penalties”. Another important point for the defense is the legitimacy of the doctors who issued these certificates. According to the lawyers, the first victim was given her certificate by interns who did not yet have their medical degree.
What do the two complainants accuse the presenter of?
Last March, the host spent 48 hours in police custody before the Paris prosecutor’s office decided to send him to court on Thursday, March 14, 2024. The M6 star is accused by three former partners, two of whom have filed complaints, of physical and psychological violence committed during their relationships. These are the two cases for which the accusers filed complaints that will be judged during trials.
During his police custody, Stéphane Plaza was confronted with the two complainants. The first mentions a romantic relationship between 2018 and 2022 and accuses the real estate agent of breaking one of her fingers and dislocating two others. She also reports a time when the host allegedly pinned her against a wall by squeezing her throat. The second complainant says she was bitten twice outside of any intimate context and suffered moral harassment. The host is presumed innocent in this procedure
Stéphane Plaza denies and pleads accident
Stéphane Plaza has always denied the accusations since they were published in the newspaper Médiapart last September and has remained faithful to his line of defense during police custody. He is said to have defended himself by mentioning the hypothesis of accidental injuries. Denying the acts of violence that he is accused of, he is said to have maintained his version according to which the two women ganged up on him to harm his reputation. He is said to have rejected and cheated on both of them and according to him, they are seeking revenge. According to a source close to the case, quoted by The ParisianStéphane Plaza would currently place himself in “denial” and “victimization”.
The testimony of the three ex-partners published by Mediapart
Stéphane Plaza is accused by three former partners of acts of violence in an article in Mediapart published Thursday, September 21. They say they suffered “verbal and psychological violence (humiliation, denigration, threats)” from the real estate agent and two of them describe “physical assaults”. They also claim to the investigative newspaper that they had a relationship with the host without knowing that he was seeing other people, accusing him of “exercising manipulation, pressure and mistreatment” to “make several serious relationships coexist at the same time”.
Stéphane Plaza reportedly refused to respond to Mediapart’s requests on these various matters. The presenter’s lawyer, Hélène Plumet, denounced “totally extrapolated, even false allegations” and “fanciful accusations”. She also said that Stéphane Plaza had filed a complaint against them last June for harassment and cyberbullying.
Among the testimonies revealed by Mediapart against the fifty-year-old presenter and real estate agent, one of his ex-partnerswho reportedly provided written testimony to a bailiff in May 2022, accuses him of “violently turning” several of her fingers during a fit of rage. “Three of my fingers were hanging down, they quickly became purple and swollen,” she claims. She also claims to have received a “punched shoulder”. Another of his former partners, who reportedly filed a complaint in September 2022, claims that he inflicted “bites” on her. Threats are also mentioned in this Mediapart article.
Stéphane Plaza “fears for his life”
Stéphane Plaza’s lawyer assured Mediapart that these testimonies come from “three women he frequented and who, finally rejected, ganged up against him to harm him by all means”. His lawyer also claims to Mediapart that a complaint for harassment and cyberbullying was filed against one of the accusers in June 2023: “The facts are serious enough for Mr. Plaza to fear for his life, as he indicated to the public prosecutor.” A complaint was also reportedly filed against one of the accusers in October 2021.
In a press release, Stéphane Plaza’s lawyers denounced “defamatory and insulting accusations”. “Mediapart has relayed three women who are undermining the dignity” of Stéphane Plaza, “thus making itself an accomplice in the public denigration of the latter, while they are the target of a criminal complaint that he filed [contre elles] for harassment and cyberbullying,” we can still read.
The M6 group had reacted to the information late in the evening, Thursday, September 21. On X (ex-Twitter), it had indicated that it had had an interview with Stéphane Plaza after the information appeared in the press. Saying that it was “particularly attached to the values of respect for people and guarantor of its code of ethics and professional conduct”, the M6 group had announced that it took “note of Stéphane Plaza’s formal contestation of the facts with which he is accused and of the legal challenges he has initiated”.