Gérald Darmanin accused of rape: the judge closed the investigation and is moving towards a dismissal – franceinfo

The examining magistrate closed the investigation into the rape accusations targeting the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin and is moving towards a dismissal, Franceinfo learned from concordant sources on Monday, September 13, confirming information from Mediapart.

The public prosecutor of Paris still has to make his requisitions before the examining magistrate makes her final decision. The judge is also awaiting the observations of the stakeholders, who may request new investigative acts. For the moment, and before the final decision of the judge is taken, Gérald Darmanin is still under the status of witness assisted in this instruction concerning the accusations of rape of Sophie Patterson-Spatz.

The complainant contacted Gérald Darmanin in 2009, when he was in charge of the legal affairs department of the UMP, to try to revise a conviction dating from 2004 for blackmail and malicious appeals against a ex-companion. She accuses Gerald Darmanin of having dangled his help in exchange for sexual favors.

Sophie Patterson-Spatz filed a complaint in 2017, but it was dismissed by the Paris prosecutor’s office. She then filed a new complaint with a civil party in 2018, but an investigating judge refused to resume the investigations. Finally, in mid-June 2020, the Paris Court of Appeal ordered the resumption of investigations into these same accusations.

In this case, Gérald Darmanin confirmed with had a sexual relationship with the complainant but disputes any constraint and any consideration. He filed a complaint for slanderous denunciation.

Gerald Darmanin’s lawyers, Masters Pierre-Olivier Sur and Mathias Chichportich, said Monday evening that their client was abstaining from comment. “After the three consecutive court decisions which recognized the absence of an offense, he awaits the final decision of the investigating judge,” they write in a statement.