In tears on the stand, Dr. Lucas cracks. And seems to belatedly realize the real stakes of the trial. Facing the correctional court of Saint-Pierre which must decide the continuation of his career, the general practitioner admits to having “very badly done”. “I offer my humblest apologies. I should never have done what I did but I did it out of humanity. I beg you to give me the medicine back.” The trial ends. Outside, about sixty of his supporters, many of whom are symbolically dressed in white, will applaud him as he leaves the courthouse. “Freedom, enlightened doctor, justice”, many claim. Among them, a woman came to the hearing with a sign tied around her neck: “Dr. Lucas, you are a hero. Thank you for saying no!!! to their madness”. “I won’t let go”, says the doctor, very moved, after having warmly embraced several of his patients, friends or supporters to thank them for coming.
At the hearing, faced with the prosecutor Coralie Sutra who mechanically demonstrated that Dr Lucas was guilty of the facts of fraud and forgery and use of forgery, the doctor’s lawyers, Mes Clémence Godinaud and Djalil Gangate replied that their client was not enriched but that he acted out of conviction. The investigation of the gendarmes established a hundred misleading vaccinations. The lawyer for the general social security fund, Me Caroline Chane Meng Hime, quantifies the damage at 36,689 euros between April and August 2021, based on 1,906 new patients from the doctor who came from all over the island to obtain these fakes. documents.
In anti-vax circles, Dr. Lucas was well known. Hence the influx of patients. Several witnesses heard during the investigation indicated that he “there was a queue in front of the cabinet”. Among these new patients, many health professionals, firefighters or even airline personnel subject to compulsory vaccination. Faced with the increase in activity, the cleaning lady of the cabinet had been requisitioned by the doctor to have the QR codes edited. The practitioner admitted having spent a “thirteen-hour day in a row” due to demand. With 83 injections.
“NOT TO DISCRIMINATE”
At the helm, this 60-year-old general practitioner, banned from practicing since his indictment and judicial review decided on October 15, 2021, explains that he “do not refuse to vaccinate” but that he is “opposed to the principle of compulsory vaccination instituted in an emergency”. Dr. Lucas claims he did not charge his patients. Some brought him a bottle of champagne to thank him. The investigation of his bank accounts did not reveal any extraordinary enrichment.
How was led to produce fakes? asks the president. “I wanted to save myself and keep my job as a doctor,” he replies bluntly. He himself fabricated his false certificate by obtaining an authorization to vaccinate at the Regional Health Agency. “For the sake of fairness and not to discriminate”, he therefore produced some for others. “I didn’t want to benefit from it myself and not do it for my patients. It was inconceivable”. After starting, “it became hellish”, admits Dr. Lucas. “I no longer knew how to stop. I put my finger in a fatal gear. I had no intention of cheating the CGSS. I did it for the sake of consistency”. By producing complete vaccine schedules so you don’t get caught. But the abnormal increase in its activity with patients crossing the whole island for consultations prompted Social Security to initiate a check.
If he claims not to have acted for the money, the prosecutor notices his words noted by a substitute doctor of the firm: “It puts butter in the spinach”. “Jokes like that, I make four or five a day”, replies Dr. Lucas. According to his lawyer, the doctor was confronted with “distress situations”. “A fire station command who broke down in tears because without a certificate he couldn’t appear before his subordinates”, says Dr Bertrand Lucas speaking of “appalling cases of conscience”. Or a young woman suffering from breast cancer and forced to be vaccinated to follow the chemotherapy sessions at the hospital. According to him, it was a “time of madness”.
“HE HAS SET UP A BUSINESS”
For others, the GP refused. And to cite the case of this “obese kid who wanted a health pass to go to McDonald’s” Or “this couple who wanted to go on a trip”. And “never, I will have made proselytism”, says the doctor.
But for the lawyer for the CGSS, the ARS and the departmental council of the order of doctors, the explanation for this affair has nothing to do with convictions. “These have no place here. The motive is above all venal”, plead Me Chane Meng Hime also speaking “windfall effects”. “This doctor has quoted the most expensive acts to social security to have the most money”, deplores the lawyer, recalling that a principle of trust exists between practitioners and the CGSS. “These are public funds which are linked to the principle of national solidarity so that everyone has access to care”.
Prosecutor Coralie Sutra in turn castigates the doctor who “positions itself as a vigilante to restore a form of fairness and prevent discrimination by a demonized administrative machine” while he “set up a business”. “We are on a large scale deception which is actually called a scam”. For the magistrate, the version of the doctor according to which he “got carried away by this machine to protect himself and to protect his patients” is not credible. “The doctor agreed to promote the circulation of the virus by producing false certificates”, she affirms again before requesting a six-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 10,000 euros, including 5,000 suspended. “He has lost all sense of reality in defiance of any ethical rule”, adds the magistrate before asking as an additional sentence “the permanent prohibition to exercise”. “It is a right that he lost by choosing to take action and find himself in the position of delinquent”.
The court will deliver its decision on June 29.
JEROME TALPIN
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> “He does not understand that he is considered a crook”
“A doctor faithful to his convictions”, “acts billed to social security out of consistency”, “a choice dictated by his concern for people and not to fill his pockets”. My Clémence Godinaud and Djalil Gangate did not plead for release but defended that their client had established the forgeries “to remain faithful to his convictions”. “He did it out of pure conviction and he didn’t improve his lifestyle,” insists the lawyer, highlighting the principles of “consent to care” and of “sacrality of the human body” defended by Dr. Lucas.
“Understanding what is said before applying it is the education he received from his parents who were teachers of philosophy and letters”, adds Me Godinaud while recalling the context of the time and the anger of a part of the opinion vis-a-vis the obligation to vaccinate based on the doubts of the effectiveness of the vaccine and its safety. “Dr. Lucas was never motivated by greed,” observes the lawyer. “It was unthinkable for him to impose a vaccine on a population”.
“I don’t think Dr. Lucas wants to claim to be a vigilante,” believes Me Djalil Gangate. He is only vigilant of his conscience and of knowing what is his duty in front of the human being”. “Thousands of false documents have saved lives”, supports the lawyer by recalling that the names of some of their authors appear in the alley of the Righteous of Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem. The acts of Dr. Lucas are “indissociable from its values and convictions”, continues Me Gangate by denouncing the “radical punishment” retained by the prosecution: “Social and professional death”.
“Dr. Lucas considered that he could not help his patients when he had fabricated a false vaccination certificate”, emphasizes the former southern president. “It is not the financial motive that drives him but the human motive. He does not understand that he is considered a crook. In this period of collective madness, you are forced to do absurd things. You had to manage “. “He is a man who loves his job and who is considered a good doctor by his patients, observes the lawyer again. He hasn’t been practicing since September 2021. It’s already huge”. For Me Gangate, the “just punishment” would be “cover” this period of eighteen months of prohibition without going beyond. “A sentence that corresponds to the truth of this file”.
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