The investigation into the death of Sandrine Bonnaire's mother in an nursing home closed without further action

An investigation into manslaughter opened after a complaint from actress Sandrine Bonnaire accusing a public nursing home in Charente-Maritime of “medical negligence” where her mother was placed before her death in 2023, was dismissed, we learned on Monday from the prosecution. This preliminary investigation was closed on July 10 because “the offense of manslaughter was insufficiently characterized,” Benjamin Alla, public prosecutor in Saintes (Charente-Maritime), told AFP, confirming information from the regional daily Sud Ouest.

At the end of 2023, Sandrine Bonnaire announced she was filing a complaint, accusing this public establishment for the elderly of having neglected cleaning, the supply of toilet paper or even hydration for her mother. “It was medical negligence which led to her death (...) My mother had no illness, she was 84 years old,” the actress accused in the newspaper Le Parisien, saying she was speaking out “so that the care of our elders changes”. The criminal investigation, opened in March 2024 after this complaint against X, was entrusted to the La Rochelle judicial police.

“If the investigation and in particular the medico-legal expert report were able to highlight certain shortcomings in the care, these shortcomings only contributed indirectly to the death of Ms. Bonnaire's mother, in particular with regard to her pre-existing state of health,” underlines the prosecutor. The magistrate recalls that in matters of involuntary manslaughter, the criminal liability of those involved is assessed according to their “manifestly deliberate violation of a particular obligation of prudence or safety” or their “blatant fault”. “In the present case, the expert report does not highlight such a violation (...), nor does it observe any clear fault,” explains the prosecutor.

This legal procedure came a few months after the scandal of the private group of retirement homes Orpea, which led to a strengthening of controls on nursing homes, public and private. According to the Communal Social Action Center (CCAS) of Saintes, managing this 90-bed nursing home, Sandrine Bonnaire's mother resided there for three years before being hospitalized in Saintes, where she died on August 23, 2023. The Regional Health Agency (ARS) in Nouvelle-Aquitaine had affirmed that neither it nor the departmental council had “received any report on this situation”. The ARS nevertheless said it was monitoring the establishment, inspected in 2015 and 2022, and that “the dysfunctions observed” had “been the subject of notable but insufficient improvements”.