While the prosecutor’s office filed an appeal on Monday after lawyer Alex Ursulet was acquitted by a Paris criminal court, which tried him for the rape of an intern in his office in January 2018, another case emerged in the cozy world of law firms.
Lyon criminal lawyer David Metaxas was detained by police this Monday as part of an investigation into rape and sexual harassment, the Chambéry prosecutor’s office said, confirming information from Le Progrès.
“The person in question has been in police custody since this morning” Monday, as part of a judicial investigation opened into rape, aggravated rape and sexual assault, which was entrusted to the Chamber’s investigative judge, Chamber prosecutor Xavier Sicot said.
Mr. Sicot did not want to provide further details regarding the allegations against the lawyers, but according to Le Progrès, the complainants were former interns at his firm.
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His lawyer, Me Alain Jakubowicz, could not immediately be reached.
The trial he was defending was postponed
Monday morning, the murder trial before the Vaucluse Assize Court had to be postponed due to the absence of Lyon’s lawyer, for “insurmountable” reasons, the court said, according to the Vaucluse Matin daily.
This is not the first time the criminal lawyer, who primarily defends members of organized crime, has had brushes with the law.
Indicted in 2012 for concealing a breach of professional secrecy in the corruption case of Lyon’s former number two judicial police officer, Michel Neyret, Me Metaxas was acquitted during a trial in 2016.
