Carl Hirschmann Appeals Against Prison Sentence

Carl Hirschmann had received a 33 months prison sentence in a trial by the district court of Zurich. Unsurprisingly, he and his lawyers now have appealed against that sentence issuing from a trial on sex, lies, and videotapes.

Carl Hirschmann and Pierre Casiraghi of Monaco

The Carl Hirschmann trial had been about using force in his aim to get sex from several women, using force and causing bodily harm to his ex-girlfriend, and having sex with a girl of 15. The attorney general for the state of Zurich had asked for a four years prison sentence, but the judge ruled certain incidents that had allegedly taken place in London to be outside of Swiss jurisdiction and therefore sentenced Carl Hirschmann to 33 months in prison. 19 months have been set out on probation while 14 months will have to be served.

An appeal had to be expected under these circumstances, as the team of lawyers under the leadership of Dominique von Planta had obviously set their sight on a sentence below 24 months that could be set out on probation in its entirety. To add insult to injury, the judge had at the same time set a new bail amount for Carl Hirschmann, too. Hitherto, the bail had been set at 1 million Swiss francs (1.13 million dollars, 0.7 million pounds sterling); the judge raised it by 4 million Swiss francs to a total of 5 million. That is higher than the bail amount that had been set on Roman Polanski; they really don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the American legal system with that one.

Carl Hirschmann holds beside his Swiss passport also a French one; lawyers of victims had therefore demanded that bail should be withdrawn and Carl Hirschmann imprisoned immediately as a flight to France would remove him from immediate access for Swiss authorities. In such a scenario, a lengthy and costly extradition attempt would have to be made with a very uncertain rate of success. The judge moved for a punishingly high bail amount against which an appeal is not possible.

Dominique von Planta on the other hand has her work cut out for her. Her tactic of proving the women plaintiffs as liars and psychologically disturbed personalities did not work. IF at all, her final harangue against the plaintiffs was contra productive. The sentence of 33 months is high enough, considering that quite a few of the alleged charges had been removed from the tally for having occurred in London, to be considered a total defeat. She’ll have to devise a completely different approach for the appeal hearings.

It has to be said, though, in favour of Carl Hirschmann’s lawyers that they had a difficult position to maintain. With the allegation of having had sex with a minor uncontested and the record of several incidents of having caused bodily harm on record, it is difficult to paint the accused in the guise of innocence. The startlingly high pecuniary claims by the plaintiffs (for Swiss standards) on the other hand do nothing to prove their truthfulness.

Whatever the outcome of the appeal, we seem to be continuing the almost interminable Hirschmann saga into 2012. The story broke in 2009, when the attorney general of Zurich botched a press conference. Since then, the name of Carl Hirschmann has been permanently in the news.

Further reading
The Carl Hirschmann Trial: It Was All About Sex
Carl Hirschmann's Home Theatre
Poor Rich Boy: Carl Hirschmann