This Monday afternoon a retired couple accused in particular of harassment, against their tenant a 37-year-old nurse at the Montpellier University Hospital, was released by the Montpellier court
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The hearing lasted more than two hours in the René Cassin room of the criminal court of Montpellier. For the occasion, the national media had made the trip. It must be said that a few weeks ago, the case had made the headlines of the press : “A nurse kicked out by her owners for fear of the Coronavirus” could we read with some of our colleagues.
On the defendants’ bench, Evelyne V and Jean D, aged 76 and 80, without a criminal record, seem lost in the midst of the decorum of justice. The couple is accused of harassment, invasion of privacy, degradations, as well as “maneuver, threat, assault or coercion to force a person to leave his place of residence”.
The ex-bank employee and the retired representative acknowledge a conflict with their tenant, particularly around the number of people occupying their accommodation, but they have denied any relationship with their tenant’s job.Very quickly during the hearing, we understand that the situation got worse from the moment the nurse installed in the apartment his mother, daughter, granddaughter and a dog contrary to the terms of the lease .
“My problem is the lease we signed, it states that two people must live in the apartment”
Parquet runaway
In his oral argument, Maître Jean-Christophe Legros, the couple’s lawyer denounced the “lack of discernment of the public prosecutor” victim, according to him, of “distorted information” and of media outburst. He demanded the release of his clients when the Prosecutor, André Dutil had requested a suspended prison sentence. In the end, the couple was sentenced to a 50 euro fine for slight damage to property but released from all the other charges, enough to make the defendants’ lawyer happy:
The simple reading of the file in an exasperated manner gives the result of today, the judicial court has stopped the runaway judicial I am satisfied with it “
For his part, Maître Rémy Lévy, lawyer for the nurse and his family, said that he was “surprised and disappointed with the decision and said that the legal proceedings had been initiated by the prosecution and not by his clients.
Montpellier: The case of the expelled nurse was in fact only a neighborhood conflict
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A nationwide affair
History had toured France a few weeks ago at the start of confinement: Mélina, a 37-year-old nurse forced to leave her Montarnaud apartment by its owners. At the time, she lived for six months in an apartment with her companion located on the ground floor of a 200m² villa, the first floor is occupied by owners aged 75 and 80 years.
Once the confinement is pronounced, Mélina wishes to welcome her 20 year old daughter, her 3 year old granddaughter and her 62 year old mother in her large apartment. The idea is simple: she settles in her daughter’s small apartment near the CHU in Montpellier and the rest of the family confines herself to Montarnaud.
No more hot water or TV
By common sense, the tenant talks about it to the owners but very quickly the situation worsens: “The owner told me that she did not want strangers in her house, to my mother she said to her” go back to your Ehpad! “(…) As there were insults, they cut the boiler off, threw objects across the room and cut the TV.”
Before the court, the nurse returned to these statements, notably stating that the boiler thermostat was managed from the ground floor apartment.
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