Joël Guerriau, a 66-year-old elected official from Loire-Atlantique, was arrested at his home after a complaint filed by MP Sandrine Josso. He is suspected of having drugged the chosen one in order to obtain sexual favors from her.
Extremely serious accusations. This Thursday, November 17, the independent senator of Loire-Atlantique Joël Guerriau was placed in police custody in Paris, suspected of having drugged a member of parliament with a view to sexual assault. Information revealed by our colleagues from RMC.
• A senator accused of trying to drug a deputy
The events took place on the evening of Tuesday, November 14. That evening, MP Sandrine Josso found Senator Joël Guerriau. The two parliamentarians, both from the same department, have known each other for around ten years and planned to see each other to celebrate an event.
According to Sandrine Josso, their relationship is described as friendly and unambiguous. Rather than dining at a restaurant, the senator suggested that the MP join him at his home, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.
Around 8 p.m., Sandrine Josso arrives at her parliamentary colleague’s house. She then notices that he is behaving strangely. The latter offers him several glasses of alcohol which he prepares, alone, in his kitchen. According to his account, he looks at her with a form of insistence and changes the light in the room to change the atmosphere. According to his first statements to investigators, the senator insisted that they “party together.”
The victim said he felt ill about twenty minutes after taking a drink offered by the senator. She breaks out in a cold sweat and feels her heart racing. In her complaint, she specifies that she became afraid at that moment. She fears that if she confides her temporary discomfort to Joël Guerriau, he will ask her to stay at home and could abuse her.
She orders a taxi and leaves the scene around 10 p.m. She arrives at the National Assembly where she confides in two colleagues. They call the firefighters and Samu. When paramedics arrived, they noted that his pupils were greatly dilated and that his heart was beating at an abnormal rate. She was hospitalized in Lariboisière where traces of ecstasy were found in her blood.
• A sachet of ecstasy found during searches
A complaint for “administration of a harmful substance without her knowledge with the aim of committing rape or sexual assault” was filed by the MP. An offense punishable by 5 years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros. Sandrine Josso explains that she does not understand the attitude of her parliamentary colleague, believing that she has always had an unambiguous relationship with him.
A flagrant investigation was opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office and Joël Guerriau was placed in police custody early Wednesday evening, his parliamentary immunity being automatically lifted.
Searches were carried out at the elected official’s office but also at his home, where investigators found a transparent bag containing powder which, after analysis, turned out to be ecstasy. According to information from BFMTV, urine tests carried out on the senator revealed traces of cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, MDMA, methadone and cannabis in his blood.
• Joël Guerriau speaks of a misunderstanding
Faced with investigators, Joël Guerriau explained that, going through a difficult and stressful period, he turned to a friend who provided him with a “euphoriant”. On Monday, he put a little powder in a glass before giving up taking it. He then put the glass back in his cupboard. Still according to his version, Tuesday evening, without paying attention, he would have taken this glass again to prepare a drink for the MP, a friend for around ten years, without realizing that the powder was still at the bottom of the glass. This is how she would have been poisoned. Finally, Joël Guerriau also denied being a drug user.
Me Rémi-Pierre Drai, lawyer for Joël Guerriau, brushes aside the accusations against his client. “We are very far from the scabrous interpretation that can be deduced from reading the first press articles.”
In a second press release, the lawyer estimated that the confrontation between the deputy and the senator had allowed his client “to forcefully confirm his version of the facts which does not allow, at this stage of the investigation, to characterize any offense”.
Contacted by BFMTV, Julia Minkowski, Sandrine Josso’s lawyer, indicates that her client “is still in a state of shock”.
“She had to deploy monumental physical and intellectual forces to overcome her terror and extricate herself at the last minute from this ambush. Added to this is a feeling of betrayal and total incomprehension, Joël Guerriau had been a friend for around ten years, in which she had complete confidence, continues the plaintiff’s lawyer.
The senator’s custody should in theory end this Friday evening. The Paris prosecutor’s office could open a judicial investigation. In this context, the senator could be indicted.