Word: stephane
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...June 30, Rees-Jones' lawyer Christian Curtil wrote to Stephan asking him to re-examine the Ritz's responsibility in the accident, specifically requesting new interrogations of senior hotel officials and a manager of Etoile Limousine. The lawyer's move could lead the judge to widen the probe and put Ritz and Etoile officials under formal criminal investigation along with the paparazzi. Though Rees-Jones' amnesia makes it difficult for him to testify, he has a powerful ally in Wingfield. On July 3, at his own initiative, Wingfield met with Stephan and delivered a potentially incriminating account of the role...
...close they were in pursuit of the Mercedes. But most witnesses, including the first two policemen on the scene, paint an unflattering picture of their antics in the wake of the accident, when they hovered around the car, insulted one another and vied for the best photo angles. Stephan confronted them with eight witnesses on June 5, but many discrepancies remain. Road tests last May proved that all the motorcycles and scooters involved in the chase were powerful enough to keep up with the Mercedes. Lawyers for the photographers argue that Paul's drunkenness and reckless driving caused the accident...
Sources close to the investigation say prosecutor Maude Coujard is not convinced that there is sufficient evidence to try any of the paparazzi, especially on the involuntary homicide charge. Stephan and fellow Judge Marie-Christine Devidal, however, appear to be considering charges against some of the photographers for involuntary homicide or the lesser charge of reckless endangerment...
...Stephan may also widen the investigative net to include other paparazzi. He has requisitioned the mobile-phone records of all the defendants to see if they were in contact with other photographers who may have been on the scene that night. The judge also suspects that some of the paparazzi may know more about the Fiat Uno than they let on, and that its driver could possibly have been a photographer...
...Stephan is expected to wind up his investigation this fall, but a trial, if it occurs, is not likely to take place until at least mid-1999. The civil phase, which will almost certainly spill over into the next century, is apt to wind up in an unseemly brawl involving the Ritz, al Fayed, the bodyguards, the paparazzi, Etoile Limousine and, of course, the insurance companies. Meanwhile, al Fayed continues to pursue his own investigation and to defend his son's reputation, keeping his London and Paris apartments eerily intact. "It is like the Egyptian pyramids," he says. "When...