A man on trial for drugging a woman without her knowledge. Usually, this kind of business drains little public, and even fewer journalists. However, this Thursday morning, the hearing will be held in one of the largest rooms of the Paris Criminal Court, and the benches of the press will certainly be full. Because in this case, it is the profile of the protagonists that holds the attention: Laurent Bigorgne, former director of the Institut Montaigne – a liberal think tank – and close to Emmanuel Macron, is suspected of having slipped from MDMA in the glass of Sophie Conrad, the head of the organization’s “public policy” department… who is none other than her former sister-in-law.
The affair took place the night of February 22 to 23. That evening, Laurent Bigorgne invites his collaborator to a working dinner at his home. Barely arrived, Sophie Conrad is offered a glass of champagne, but from the first sips, she begins to feel bad: palpitations, dizzy head, foggy mind. The 40-year-old woman then has the reflex to send an SMS to a friend, who tries to reach her in return and then calls Laurent Bigorgne’s phone. According to the plaintiff’s story, it was this call that brought her out of her torpor and prompted her to leave the home of the director of the Montaigne Institute to go to the hospital.
Confessions in custody
Blood tests are clear: in his blood is detected the presence of amphetamine and MDMA. Placed in police custody two days later, Laurent Bigorgne admits having administered a substance in the glass of Sophie Conrad. He even admits having already drugged his wife without her knowledge. This Thursday morning, it will therefore not be so much the materiality of the facts that will be the subject of a debate, but the motive. Why did Laurent Bigorgne, who was one of Emmanuel Macron’s advisers during the 2017 campaign, administer these substances to his collaborator?
At the end of his police custody, the former president of the Institut Montaigne – he was dismissed following this case – was summoned for “administration of a harmful substance followed by incapacity not exceeding 8 days by a person acting under the manifest influence of narcotics “, having himself taken MDMA. The investigation therefore did not retain any sexual intentions in the attitude of the suspect, to the chagrin of the civil party. “These are two people who have known each other for thirty years, there was absolutely no ulterior motive”, assures the council of Laurent Bigorgne, Me Sébastien Schapira. And to insist on the depressive state of his client at the time of the facts, on the verge of burnout and addicted to cocaine.
An explanation that hardly convinces Sophie Conrad. With her lawyer, Me Arié Alimi, she notably filed a complaint with civil action – which automatically leads to the appointment of an investigating judge – for attempted rape. A request deemed inadmissible but for which they appealed. Since the media coverage of the case, she has never ceased to denounce a “botched” and under influence investigation, filing a complaint against the director of the Parisian PJ and the Paris prosecutor for “false public writing” and “obstruction to the manifestation of the truth”. “One of the challenges of this trial, specifies his lawyer, is to know if in this case, the prosecution has taken a posture and a positioning because of the stature of the respondent. More generally, it shows why many rape victims turn away from justice. »
Two new expertise
Initially scheduled for March, the trial had been postponed, the prosecutor acknowledging that certain elements essential to its holding were missing, in particular a psychiatric examination of the defendant and a psychological expertise establishing the number of days of total incapacity for work of the civil party. . An insufficient response according to Sophie Conrad and her lawyer who decided to seize François Molins, Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, to obtain a change of scenery for the entire procedure. The decision is expected at the end of the day.