Will Romain Dupuy one day leave the psychiatric unit for difficult patients (UMD) in which he entered 17 years ago? After several years of judicial and administrative ping-pong, the case of this schizophrenic man, author of double murder of a caregiver and a nurse in Pau in 2004, must again be examined by judges. Recognized as criminally irresponsible because of his pathology, Romain Dupuy was placed in this unit for dangerous patients – for themselves or for others – in Cadillac (Gironde).
Now 39 years old, the man has never left the walls of this structure. On several occasions, however, he made transfer requests to benefit from full hospitalization, but in a traditional psychiatric establishment. Remained so far unanswered, his request was accepted last week for the first time by a judge of freedoms and detention (JLD). But the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office, which has always opposed his transfer, appealed this decision. Now instructs the Court of Appeal to examine this file, this Wednesday, June 15.
Why is Romain Dupuy requesting his transfer?
Seventeen years have passed since the compulsory hospitalization of this patient, diagnosed with schizophrenia and found irresponsible for a double murder which had seized the whole country with terror. By decision of the prefect, Romain Dupuy was placed in one of the 10 UMDs in France. These closed places, which are the subject of unannounced visits by the Controller General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL), resemble the prison environment. “The security measures are very strict, the activities are limited and monitored”, detail Hélène Lecat and Serge Portelli, the patient’s two lawyers.
Since 2018, the Cadillac Hospital Medical Monitoring Committee has highlighted three times stabilization of Romain Dupuy’s state of health and even spoke out in favor of leaving the UMD. “Our client will always be a schizophrenic patient. But the latest assessments indicate that it cannot be more stable than today. He is particularly resilient, has not been the subject of any isolation or restraint measure, of any attempt to escape and he is following his treatment. We are not asking that he be released into the wild, we are simply asking for a complete care measure in a less prison universe, ”adds his lawyer.
Who can decide on the transfer of Romain Dupuy to a classic psychiatric unit?
This is where the situation gets complicated. According to the Public Health Code, it is up to the prefect to issue an order to transfer the patient to another establishment. But the prefecture of Gironde has not taken any decision in this direction, despite the favorable opinions given by the medical commission of Cadillac.
Already requested in April 2021 by the lawyers of Romain Dupuy, the judge of freedoms and detention (JLD) had declared herself at the time “incompetent” to rule and had returned to the prefecture. However, “when a medical monitoring committee decides to say that there is no longer any need to take care of a patient in UMD, the prefect is required to proceed with the transfer”, recalls Paul Veron, lecturer in law private sector and criminal sciences at the University of Nantes.
Questioned at the time by the newspaper Release, the prefect of Gironde then assumed: “I am against this transfer. The facts committed are extremely serious, I have read all the expert reports, and I believe in my soul and conscience that it is dangerous to get this gentleman out of the UMD. It would be a significant risk of disturbing public order that it is not appropriate to take” before adding: “If it is an infringement of rights, the judge will say so”.
What can the new decision taken by the judge of freedoms and detention change?
Last twist to date, this same judge who had declared himself “incompetent” in 2021 rendered a completely different decision last week. In her order issued on June 9, the magistrate considered that “the placement of Mr. Romain Dupuy in the Unit for difficult patients has become irregular” and ordered its lifting. “It is constant and medically noted that Mr. Romain Dupuy is no longer currently hospitalized in UMD”, she added, while asking for the maintenance of “the person concerned in full hospitalization”.
An “innovative” decision, according to Paul Véron: “Until now, the judicial judge had not authorized himself to control the legality of the measures of placement or maintenance in these specific units. For the first time, he authorizes himself to directly pronounce the release of the maintenance of the patient in the UMD, which makes it possible to circumvent the illegal refusal of the prefect”. However, the transfer of Romain Dupuy is far from being recorded. Shortly after this decision, the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office appealed. “As argued in our previous requisitions, we consider that the JLD, judicial judge, does not have jurisdiction to order the lifting of the placement in Unit for Difficult Patients of Romain Dupuy. It is up to the administrative jurisdiction alone to decide, ”justified the prosecution to 20 Minutes.
What can the Bordeaux Court of Appeal decide?
It now remains for the magistrates of the Court of Appeal to decide. Either they decide to follow the interpretation of the JLD and order the transfer of the patient to a conventional hospital, or the court may consider that it is indeed the sole competence of the administrative authority, therefore of the prefecture. A return to square one in short. Already requested in 2021, this Bordeaux Court of Appeal had confirmed that the judicial judge was not competent on this subject.
But the judgment delivered at the time had underlined that “the absence of an administrative decision” reflected “unquestionably on the health of the patient”. An observation shared by the lawyers of Romain Dupuy who believe that the “resilience” of their client has “its limits”: “This stubborn silence of the administrative authorities is equivalent to a psychiatric life sentence. We simply ask that justice recognize the work of psychiatrists and the efforts made by the sick patient”.
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