The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed, Tuesday, January 24, the dismissal of the case rendered in July 2022 in favor of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, accused of rape by Sophie Patterson-Spatz, who had filed an appeal against this decision.
During a hearing behind closed doors on December 13, in the absence of the two protagonists, the public prosecutor’s office had requested confirmation of the dismissal. In its written submissions consulted by Agence France-Presse, the public prosecutor dismissed “the hypothesis of false or malicious accusations” by Mme Patterson-Spatz, but felt that“it can only be considered[elle] did not consent to the sexual act”.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Elodie Tuaillon-Hibon, evoked on the contrary a “surprise rape” and sexual intercourse “extorted”, “neither free nor consented”. The lawyer had expressed her wish to have “finally entitled to a little justice”because “the incriminating elements for the rape are present in the file”. The lawyers for the Minister of the Interior, Pierre-Olivier Sur and Mathias Chichportich, did not wish to react.
SMS exchange
Mme Patterson-Spatz, 50, filed a first complaint for rape against Mr. Darmanin in the spring of 2017, for facts which allegedly occurred in Paris in 2009. She had decided to file a complaint after the arrival in government of that -this. After investigations closed three times and procedural disputes, Mme Patterson-Spatz had obtained in the summer of 2020 the appointment of an investigating judge to examine his charges.
In 2009, the complainant contacted Gérald Darmanin, then project manager in the legal affairs department of the UMP (a party that has since become Les Républicains), to obtain support when she wanted to have a 2005 conviction reviewed for blackmail and malicious calls to an ex-companion. According to her, he had made her dangle his possible support during an evening by a letter which he undertook to write to the chancellery, and had asked in exchange for a sexual relationship.
Both the complainant and the minister admitted a sexual relationship, but Sophie Patterson-Spatz believes that she was forced to “go to the pan” with Mr. Darmanin when the latter, then 26 years old, said to him: “You too will have to help me. » For his part, the Minister of the Interior claims to have “given in to charms” of a complainant “enterprising”.
An exchange of text messages between them nine months later is at the heart of the case. Mme Patterson-Spatz wrote to him: “Abuse of position. For me, that’s being a jerk. (…) When you know the effort it took me to fuck with you. To take care of my case. » Mr. Darmanin replies: “You’re right, I’m probably a jerk. How to forgive myself ? »
“Sincerity” of the complainant
The investigating judge had placed Mr. Darmanin under the status of assisted witness in December 2020 and then confronted the minister and the complainant for nine hours the following March, before dismissing the case. In its July order, it noted, like the public prosecutor’s office, that “the sincerity of the declarations” of Sophie Patterson-Spatz regarding a rape “cannot be challenged”. She added, however, that the complainant had “deliberately chose to have a sexual relationship with him in order to have his criminal case retried”.
Gerald Darmanin has “could legitimately be mistaken about 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 examining magistrate. “Law is not to be confused with morality”she had however considered, considering that the complainant was “consenting under the law”.
In July 2020, Gérald Darmanin said to himself “quiet as the Baptist” regarding these charges, citing facts dating back to his “young man’s life”. A resident of Tourcoing (North) had also accused Mr. Darmanin of having forced her to have sex in exchange for housing and a job. The investigation was dismissed in 2018.
Since his accession to the Ministry of the Interior, in July 2020, Mr. Darmanin has been reviled by many feminist voices, who consider his presence in Place Beauvau to be abnormal.