Director General of Public Health France (SPF) since 2019, Geneviève Chêne was released, Tuesday, September 13, from the heads of “moral harassment” and “slanderous denunciation” by the 31e Chamber of the Paris Criminal Court. On the front line in the management of the Covid-19 epidemic, Mme Chêne did not attend the deliberations of the court. Like three Bordeaux forensic doctors and the Bordeaux University Hospital, she was summoned to appear in April by doctor Karine Dabadie.
The latter accused the defendants of having contributed to his ouster, in December 2019, from the post of head of the medico-judicial unit and the Emergency reception center for victims of aggression (Cauva) attached to the health center public of the CHU of Bordeaux.
The court also acquitted doctors Larbi Benali, Julien Comte and Edouard Bontoux, as well as the Bordeaux University Hospital insofar as the alleged offenses were not “sufficiently characterized”.
“This decision does not mean that the defendants behaved adequately or fairly towards you. Your damage has been enormous in terms of health and professionally”nuanced the president of the 31e room, addressing Mr.me Dabadie, pale at the helm.
deleterious atmosphere
The April hearing had highlighted the deleterious atmosphere that has long prevailed within the Cauva medico-judicial unit in Bordeaux, undermined by internal conflicts and annealed hatreds. Mme Dabadie had notably pointed to a note co-signed, on October 30, 2019, by Mme Chêne, then at the head of the public health center of the CHU of Bordeaux, and intended for the general manager of the CHU as well as the president of the medical commission of the establishment. In this document were notified the reproaches formulated against Mr.me After: “unfriendly attitudes”, “management revealing questionable practices”.
The note would have echoed grievances that would have been issued by three forensic doctors, received on October 30, 2019 by Mr.me Oak, named the day before « DG » of SPF by a decree of Emmanuel Macron.
At the hearing, Geneviève Chêne contested the charges brought against her. His lawyer, Paul-Albert Iweins, pointed out that his client had “did his duty as a civil servant as this unit was not working” by alerting the general management of the CHU, “decision-making level”in the case of Mme Follow up. “The simplest solution would have been to say: ‘I don’t care about it, I leave that to my successors at the time of my appointment to Public Health France'”, had added the former president of Paris.
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