John Galliano, the former Dior designer, will be going to court this week for his anti-semitic slurs that got him into hot water in a Paris cafe earlier this year.
The slurs cost him his job at Dior and many of his fashion fans. He was fired after fourteen years with the company. He was also slapped with handcuffs. According to The Huffington Post, Galliano was charged with “public insults based on origin, religious affiliation, race or ethnicity.” This may leave him with huge fines, somewhere around $32,175, and six months in prison.
He reportedly plans to tell the court he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident. The incident took place in February, after Galliano made the comments in the cafe. Afterwards, he was taken by police to be questioned, and when they gave him an alcohol test, the results showed that he was drunk at the time he made the statements.
After Galliano’s case hit the news, a woman came forward and said that it wasn’t the first time. She admitted that the fashion designer said the same kind of slurs, in the same cafe, in October 2010. Around the same time, the British tabloid, The Sun, displayed a video of Galliano in the cafe. He was talking to another cafe client, and said, “I love Hitler.”
According to the Huffington Post, in a statement made by Galliano after the incident, he said, “Anti-Semitism and racism have no part in our society. I unreservedly apologize for my behavior in causing any offense.” He also said that he was “seeking help” for his personal problems in a United States rehab center.
Galliano’s lawyer talked with The Telegraph commenting on his client’s addictions and problems:
“One obvious thing is that John Galliano was ill…He had a triple addiction to alcohol, Valium, and sleeping pills…The combined effect of these drugs is a state of complete and utter abandon. Pressure to perform let him to drink heavily and take Valium pills ‘like candy’…When he was in that state, he had no way of knowing or remembering what he said.”
