Lone Wolf

It only took them 30 years.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090927/...rland_polanski


Director Roman Polanski was taken into custody, Swiss police confirmed Sunday, on a 1978 U.S. arrest warrant for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Polanski was flying in to receive an honorary award at the Zurich Film Festival when he was detained late Saturday at the airport, organizers at the festival said in a statement.

Zurich police spokesman Stefan Oberlin confirmed Polanski's arrest, but refused to provide more details because he said it was a matter for the Swiss Justice Ministry.

Ministry spokesman Guido Balmer declined to comment. Rudolf Wyss, the Justice Ministry deputy director, also declined to comment on the case. But he told The AP that Switzerland and the U.S. have an extradition treaty dating back to the 1950s that is still in force.

The Polish-born director fled the United States in 1978, a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

The 76-year-old director of such classic films as "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" has asked a U.S. appeals court in California to overturn a judges' refusal to throw out his case. He claims misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.

Polanski has lived for the past three decades in France, where his career has continued to flourish. He received a directing Oscar in absentia for the 2002 movie "The Pianist."

Festival organizers said Polanski's detention had caused "shock and dismay," but that they would go ahead with Sunday's planned retrospective of the director's work.

The Swiss Directors Association sharply criticized authorities for what it deemed "not only a grotesque farce of justice, but also an immense cultural scandal."

A native of France who was taken to Poland by his parents, Polanski escaped Krakow's Jewish ghetto as a child and lived off the charity of strangers. His mother died at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp.

He worked his way into filmmaking in Poland, gaining an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film in 1964 for his "Knife in the Water." Offered entry to Hollywood, he directed the classic "Rosemary's Baby" in 1968.

But his life was shattered again in 1969 when his wife, actress Sharon Tate, and four other people were gruesomely murdered by followers of Charles Manson. She was eight months pregnant.

He went on to make another American classic, "Chinatown," released in 1974.

In 1977, he was accused of raping a teenager while photographing her during a modeling session. The girl said Polanski plied her with champagne and part of a Quaalude pill at Jack Nicholson's house while the actor was away. She said that, despite her protests, he performed oral sex, intercourse and sodomy on her.

Polanski was allowed to plead guilty to one of six charges, unlawful sexual intercourse, and was sent to prison for 42 days of evaluation.

Lawyers agreed that would be his full sentence, but the judge tried to renege on the plea bargain. Aware the judge would sentence him to more prison time and require his voluntary deportation, Polanski fled to France.

The now 45-year-old victim, Samantha Geimer, who long ago identified herself publicly, has joined in Polanski's bid for dismissal, saying she wants the case to be over. She sued Polanski and reached an undisclosed settlement.

Gerry P.

Whoa.

RocShemp

Talk about a cold case. After 31 years he finally gets caught.

Adam Tyner

It's not a cold case at all, though (the man had pled guilty, even!). He'd just been clever enough to avoid being extradited.

Ash Ketchum

Not clever enough, apparently. He or his lawyers should have checked up on the U.S.-Swiss extradition treaty.

Dick Laurent

No matter what your feelings are about Roman Polanski as a director, he admitted to the crime of sex with a 13-yr old girl, and then fled the country indefinitely. I've made the conscious decision NOT to support this director by not paying for or watching his movies on DVD (same for Victor Salva), and that's difficult, especially with the latest Criterion release, and the OHMC.

This subject is very personal to me, and my decision to boycott his films was not made in haste. I took a lot of time to read police reports and court records and victim statements, interviews, etc. And then I made a very informed decision.

Now, if the US ends up getting him back here, and "justice" is served, I'll have to make the decision on whether to lift my boycott.

So the burning question: If a criminal pays for his crime, does that make his successes (and DVDs) acceptable?

Deftones

Justice can finally be served.

Michael T Hudson

Agreed with above posters. I read the stuff on the smoking gun a few years ago and he deserves to be in jail.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...skicover1.html


Sick stuff.

Dr. Mantle

I just started watching Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired yesterday. Crazy timing.

Groucho

So, he's never been to Switzerland this whole time?

Deftones

I guess he had numerous times. I wonder why, now, they decided to finally arrest him.

TomOpus

Also he's settled with his victim and she does not want to go through this any more. Shouldn't her wishes (and that of her family) have a large say in continued prosecution?

Dick Laurent

Better Swiss-US relations involving banking privacy matters probably helped.

Deftones

Nope. So anytime a victim decides they don't want to prosecute any more the jurisdiction should just drop the case? Many times they don't want to prosecute because they don't want to go through an ordeal of a trial or having to relive the crime. That sets a really bad precedent if you think it should work that way.

NoirFan

Do you also change the channel every time a Naked Gun movie comes on?

Dick Laurent

No. You can't just settle and not completely fulfill your legal obligations. He's not above the law. Whether the victim wants to go through this anymore is not up to her. "Settling" only hurts the victim and the public in the long run. She knows she played a part in his seduction, and she probably still feels embarrassment (though she's been an adult for a long time now). Anyway, principal and protection is what should be the concern here.

Dick Laurent

I've never been accused of killing anyone. I have been sexually molested as a child.

Deftones

OJ wasn't convicted of murder, even though we all know he did it.

dsa_shea

Donte Stallworth was able to pay his way out of his DUI manslaughter charge.

Supermallet

I never stopped watching his films and I never will.

NoirFan

Although he was found liable for the two deaths in civil court. That didn't stop him from tracking down the real killer though.

I stopped watching Pirates.

RocShemp

I fail to see the connection.

EDIT: Ooooh.

CloverClover

this is a good thing because now he can get this fiasco behind him it is all anyone talks about with his legendary career. I think the system will be fair to him otherwise there would be a big outcry, I dont think they will want to be humiliated a second time

NoirFan

He boycotts Polanski films because of the director's criminal activities. I was wondering if he avoided all films that featured directors, actors, producers, caterers, etc. who had committed violent crimes. Naked Gun and O.J. might not have been the best example, since he was only found guilty in a civil court, but it was the first that popped into my mind. I'm sure others can come up with the hundreds of other examples. Here's a better example: One of the doctors in the original Exorcist was convicted of murder - would he avoid watching the film because of this?

Deftones

could it possibly the combination of Polanski's crime and the fact that he evaded capture for 30+ years by living in a country that doesn't extradite?