Word: stephane
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Such were the preoccupations of Judge Herve Stephan as he walked with a dozen police investigators into the empty, neon-lit Place de l'Alma tunnel. They converged on the spot where, just 30 days earlier, a black Mercedes S-280 had spun out of control and crashed headlong into the tunnel's 13th support pillar, killing Diana, her companion Dodi Fayed and their driver, and injuring their bodyguard. Last Monday at 9:20 p.m., a flatbed truck backed slowly into the tunnel bearing the grotesquely gnarled black hulk that has etched itself into the world's collective consciousness...
Lawyers for the photographers say they expect both the manslaughter and nonassistance charges against their clients to be dropped before the case goes to trial. Judge Stephan is unlikely to take any such step until the investigation is further along. It is possible that the photographers will be found to have different degrees of culpability. Already the judge has singled out two photographers, Rat and Martinez, for harsh treatment. Both men had to pay bail and had their press cards suspended...
Last week TREVOR REES-JONES, the bodyguard who was with PRINCESS DIANA and DODI FAYED, underwent questioning by investigating judge HERVE STEPHAN in a heavily guarded second-floor room at Pitie-Salpetriere hospital. Although he recalls the final moments before leaving the Ritz and getting into the car, Rees-Jones, 29, remembers nothing about the accident itself. He did tell the judge that driver HENRI PAUL seemed to be in a perfectly normal state before taking the wheel, though blood tests showed he was legally drunk. But when asked for details about the moments leading up to the accident itself...
...Stephan would like to question Rees-Jones again. But the ex-paratrooper reportedly tired quickly. It is not clear when he may be in shape to meet the judge again. Meanwhile, investigators are looking at the possibility that the fatal Mercedes may have collided lightly with another car in front of it, causing Paul to lose control. They are intrigued by taillight fragments from a Fiat Uno found near the tunnel entrance. Skidmarks, pieces of the Mercedes' headlight and scratches on its right side also support this idea, as does some eyewitness testimony...
PARIS: The bodyguard has spoken, and investigators have learned almost nothing new. Trevor Rees-Jones underwent 20 minutes of questioning about the fatal car crash by investigating judge Herve Stephan, and the results were not encouraging. "He remembers nothing about the accident," reports TIME Paris bureau chief Thomas Sancton. "He does remember the final moments before leaving the Ritz and remembers getting into the car. He also told the judge that Henri Paul seemed to be in a perfectly normal state before taking the wheel. But when asked for details about the moments leading up to the accident itself...