Police custody, indictment, immediate suspension from his party (Horizons, center-right) and his parliamentary group (Les Indépendants) ahead of likely expulsion: For the past few days, the name of Joël Guerriau, a senator from Loire-Atlantique in Western France, 66, has been associated with a nauseating affair. On Friday, November 17, a judicial investigation was opened against him for "administration, without the knowledge of [MP] Sandrine Josso, of a substance likely to impair her discernment or control over her actions, in view of committing rape or sexual assault" and "possession and use of substances classified as narcotics," namely MDMA, or ecstasy. Since then, Guerriau has pleaded an unfortunate "handling error."
It happened on Tuesday, November 14, when Josso, an MP for the centrist MoDem party, also from Loire-Atlantique, and with whom Guerriau has maintained a friendly relationship for several years, joined him at his home, in one of the buildings belonging to the Sénat, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. They had agreed to meet to celebrate the senator's recent re-election, in the September 24 elections. Josso warned him that she would have to leave early, at around 10 pm, to go to the Assemblée Nationale to take part in a vote.
According to the account she gave in her complaint, they had already shared a flute or two of champagne, when she was alerted by her host's "bizarre behavior." In particular, she saw him "grab a small plastic bag containing something white from a kitchen drawer." Twenty minutes later, after taking another sip of champagne, she started feeling palpitations. She called a cab while trying to hide her discomfort from Guerriau, who walked her to the foot of the building. On arrival at the Assemblée Nationale, feeling "disoriented," Josso told her colleagues her suspicions about what she had ingested. She was immediately taken to hospital, where a blood test and urine analysis revealed that she had tested positive for ecstasy.
Josso decided to lodge a complaint right away. On Thursday morning, the senator was arrested at his home and taken into custody. During a search of the kitchen drawer described by Josso, investigators found the small plastic bag and the powder it contained, which analysis confirmed to be ecstasy.
The senator began by justifying his possession of the substance. He said he had obtained it from a fellow senator – whose identity he did not reveal – whom he had asked for a "euphoriant." He was unaware, he insisted, that it was ecstasy. Guerriau justified his request to the investigators by saying that he was going through a dark period. He said he was tired after his senatorial election campaign, and particularly upset by the imminent death of his 20-year-old cat. He devoted his Sunday evening to digging a grave for the cat in his garden, before returning to Paris the following day.
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