The city of Saint-Malo will have to reinstate the professor of the music conservatory. So decided the administrative court of Rennes. He had been the subject of several suspensions after his indictment for acts of sexual assault on minors.
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The summary judge of the administrative court of Rennes ordered the municipality of Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine) to reinstate a teacher from the municipal Conservatory of music.
The man, who initiated the administrative appeal, had been the subject of several suspensions after his indictment for acts of sexual assault on a minor.
Due to the criminal proceedings against him and his placement under judicial supervision, the man was suspended from his functions for the first time in September 2017, for more than two years. In August 2019, the investigating judge of the Saint-Malo judicial court dismissed her on the count of sexual assault on a 15-year-old minor.
An order confirmed, on only appeal from the family of the alleged victim, by a judgment of the investigating chamber of the Rennes Court of Appeal, in June 2020. The latter had previously lifted its ban on contacting with minors in the professional context.
A new suspension in September 2020
In 2019, the town had first refused his reinstatement. But in “no change in factual or legal circumstances“, the summary judge of this same court had already ordered him to do the opposite in December 2019. Then last September, the municipality had again suspended the person concerned, a decision he requested suspension with this appeal.
For the applicant, this decision “seriously prejudices his personal and professional situation“, “harms their notoriety, as well as their physical and mental health” or “disturbed“the organization of the public service,”without any proof or presumption“of what it would represent”a danger for underage users“. He disputed the sexual connotation and the criminal nature of the alleged offenses.
In response, the municipality saw a measure aimed at “to preserve the public interest, the organization of the service and minors“attending the establishment, because of”worrying behavior of the person concerned with one of the students“. The municipality specified that this suspension could be maintained until the end of the disciplinary procedure, which was to be launched. It also considered that her teacher had”always stand in the way […] that she becomes aware of the facts with which she was accused“.
The alleged victim appealed to the Supreme Court
The summary judge leaned in favor of the applicant. This suspension “causes immediate and serious disturbances in his living conditions“, he wrote in his order in mid-October, which we have just learned, this Tuesday, from the court. The judge clarified that, despite the administrative injunction of 2019, the town of Saint -Malo had “delayed” to reinstate him after the first period of suspension.
“Even if the alleged victim appealed to the cassation“against the judgment of the investigating chamber of the Court of Appeal of June 2020, the man”was no longer subject, at the date of the order in dispute, to judicial review or criminal proceedings“, continued the judge, according to whom the commune had for a long time sufficient elements to start a disciplinary action.
The municipal decree of Saint-Malo against the professor was thus suspended until the analysis of the merits of the case. It is recalled that this is a provisional measure because an interim suspension is systematically coupled with a substantive appeal. The date of this future hearing is not yet known.
In the meantime, the town was ordered to pay the professor 1,500 € for his court costs. Contacted on Tuesday, the municipality of Saint-Malo and the applicant’s lawyer did not respond to our requests.
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