Renault Espace IV electric handbrake stuck (error scratching to no avail)

I pulled the handbrake with a small trailer hooked to the car while being face down in a steep slope as I had to back up to clear a turn. After that, I put the car in reverse and tried to back up a little. Ouch - the parking brake wouldn’t release and I was forced to pull the yellow manual release knob behind the shifting stick (under the floor hatch). I had to pull really hard to get the breaks to release - boom! After that, by parking break refused to work. Today, I opened up the electric parking brake box under the car, in front of the gas tank and noticed the cogged brass bar (has threading inside which pulls a bolt connected to the left break wire) was stuck in the “fully open” state, all the way up to the back plate. The motor can’t handle this and the brass bar has to be  turned nine, Julie by pushing down on it. Used a screwdriver and rubber club to gently get it to move. Opened it all the way to get the to parts to latch up.
Now - the errors could be scratched and the parking break works again!