Tuesday, November 26, in the morning around 5 a.m., police officers monitoring the surroundings of Beauvais station (Oise) hear an engine roar. They are dressed in a well-lit area and see a Seat Ibiza arriving which stops at a red light. The driver, Tinashe Lesdema, 26 years oldaccelerate while waiting for the light to turn green. The police officers who are intrigued by this way of driving decide to check the driver with the angry foot. A police officer signals him to stop by sending light signals with her flashlight. Which produces the opposite effect. The driver starts at full speed and enters rue Corréus, soon pursued by the police car whose flashing lights and siren are on.
Alcohol and drugs in the blood
They catch up with the fugitive who is arrested in the first position at the traffic light on rue de Pontoise. The police car approaches him, its occupants still signal him to stop without obtaining any result. The light turns green, the driver starts and turns left. He will travel a few more meters before stopping, it is 5:10 a.m. The man who smells of alcohol is taken back to the police station. The urine analysis carried out by a laboratory shows the presence of a THC level above average and the blood analysis reveals a level of 1.38 grams of alcohol per liter of blood.
He didn’t see that they were police officers
Presented for immediate appearance at the Beauvais court this Wednesday, November 27, the young man explains that the previous evening, he participated in an evening during which he drank rum mixed with fruit juice. As he has to leave for work at 6 a.m., he stopped drinking at 1 a.m. But since he didn’t smoke, he doesn’t understand the presence of THC in his blood. But, other participants were smoking around him, he assumes he inhaled some. He also refutes the refusal to comply by explaining that the policewoman dazzled him by lighting his face, he did not see that they were police officers. He didn’t hear the car siren because of his radio and didn’t pay attention to the flashing lights. When he realized that the police were chasing him, he pulled over to the left. He is a repeat offender for driving under drugs and alcohol, but it was not to avoid a sanction that he did not stop: it was because he did not understand that it was It was him that the police were chasing.
He was still on probation
Tinashe Lesdema arrived in France at the age of 4. He started taking narcotics very early and was hospitalized for three weeks in a psychiatric ward for delusional outbursts at the age of 17. The president of the court reads his criminal record. He has already been convicted four times for violence: against an ascendant, against a spouse, violence while under the influence of alcohol and refusal to comply. His last conviction for violence dates back to September 30, which earned him a ten-month prison sentence under probation. He was also convicted twice for driving under drugs and hit and run. All this leads the president to ask him: “when are you going to stop? Do you think the prosecutor will say: it’s okay, let’s let him out? With 1.38 grams of alcohol in your blood at 3 a.m., do you think you are fit to drive? We are here to enforce the law: you will reap the fruits of what you sow. At 26 you are no longer a child, you are responsible for your actions!»
For the prosecutor, everything is in the file: “he is well known to the police and has been widely known by his six convictions. He benefited from a six-month prison sentence and has just been given a ten-month suspended sentence.“. She requests an eight-month prison sentence for driving under the influence of alcohol and after using drugs, with a committal warrant, and another four months for the hit-and-run as well as the cancellation of her license and the confiscation of his car.
The man found guilty and sentenced
Domitille Risbourg, defense lawyer, pleads the naivety, the lightness of her client who is a little lost, depressed and fragile. “He thinks like a teenager. He’s in the process of becoming, he didn’t make the right choices.” She asks the court not to issue the committal warrant.
Tinashe Lesdema was found guilty. He was sentenced to two months in prison for refusing to comply and six months in prison for driving under drugs and alcohol, as a repeat offender, also with a committal warrant. His driving license is canceled and he will have to wait six months before applying for a new one and his car is confiscated. He is going to prison for eight months and will have to pay €339 in trial costs, including analysis costs. This amount may be reduced by 20% if it is paid within one month.
