Brain Stew

I just watched HBO's documentary on Polanski's rape case the other night. Basically, he's about equal with R. Kelly.

Polanski slept with a 13 year old. He admits it. She admits. He argued that it was consensual and that she had prior carnal knowledge. She argued that he gave her champagne and quaaludes. He didn't dispute giving her quaaludes, just that she was familiar with the drug and took it before ever having met him.

Polanski was charged with something like 10 counts of varying sex crimes. He was ordered to go to a psychologist and was not ruled a mentally disturbed sex offender (MDSO). The girl's family did not want her to go on the stand, Polanski fought hard against the charges and the judge did not like the negative press. So, a plea bargain was struck where he pled guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse, NOT Rape 1.

Unlawful sexual intercourse does not have a maximum sentence length, but the judge feared that Polanski would appeal the sentencing multiple times, so he ordered Polanski to go to Chino for a 90-day psychological evaluation. Under California law this is not a final sentence, so it is mandatory. But, at the same time it is not designed to be a punishment. Nonetheless, the judge struck this deal with the prosecution and defense and made it look like he was solving a resolution between the two parties by giving this evaluation.

The evaluation lasted only 42 days and as part of the backroom agreement, the judge promised when the evaluation was over, Polanski would be free. Obviously, when the press found out Polanski was only serving 42 days in Chino for his crimes they went apeshit. The judge then called for more backroom meetings and threatened deportation if the parties would not cooperate, something he was not legally allowed to do. Upon hearing this, Polanski fled to France.

He cannot and will not be extradited from France for two reasons: our treaties with France only cover major crime, Murder 1, Rape 1, etc. and he was only convicted of unlawful sexual intercourse. Second, Polanski was born in France and as such is a citizen. It is up to France's discretion whether or not they want to extradite a citizen. And France holds Mr. Polanski in high regard.

In 1998, the victim "forgave" Polanski.

So basically, he's really not any better than R. Kelly.

BravesMG

Thanks for the recap Brain Stew, I was going to watch that HBO doc but I thought it would just piss me off, and it sounds like I would have been correct. I knew the outline of the case, but not that the judge wasn't legally allowed to threaten the deportation.

Brain Stew

Well, it's a real gray area. Remember, he was threatening deportation if they didn't continue to play ball with the judge in his shady dealings.

There was a lot of wonky law stuff from the defense and prosecution, I tried my best to remember most of it, but I'm sure I missed some of the nuance.

Michael T Hudson

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


You guys should read this. It is some sick shit.

chino77

the thing i dont get is why everyone is so up in arms about the verdict. did anyone here actually view the child porn that was in question?

from what i have heard do i think he is guilty? yes
am i an r kelly fan? nope
but i wasnt on the jury. i didnt see and hear what they saw.
hell the girl that was supposedly in the vid said it wasnt her. if it was such an awful crime to fuck r kelly at the age of 13 than she would have happily stepped forward and said it was her and he ruined her life. thats not the case. so if it was her than who cares. its not like he was out raping kids and filming it for sale.

big whoppa

Hey, it worked for Roman Polanski. Of course, he left the country and can't return unless he wants to go to jail.

PopcornTreeCt

Cases like this make me feel bad for Michael Vick.

I love dogs and animals as much as anyone but killing dogs < raping women.

Why can't they ever get it right when they want to make celebrities examples of?

MovieExchange

1. He has a history of being sexually attracted to children. A PROVEN history, thanks to his marriage to a 15-year-old.

2. I would assume that the victim supported him because he's supporting her. She's in a singing group that's funded by... R. Kelly. Her father is employed by... R. Kelly. Sorta easy to guess that their testimony isn't really reliable, is it?

DeltaSigChi4

Money > justice.

E

Hiro11

1. R Kelly has a proven and lengthy history of statutory rape.

2. There's an f'ing video tape. It shows a person who looks exactly like Kelly peeing on someone who looks exactly like his goddaughter.

3. The room shown in the tape is apparently a very "distinctive" log-cabin type sauna. Coincidentally exactly like R Kelly's log cabin sauna. Not exactly a common decor theme.

4. The prosecution's "little man" defense is just as patently ridiculous as the Chewbacca defense. It's simply astoundingly dumb.

5. Something like 30 witnesses put Kelly at the scene.

The fact that he wasn't convicted is simply laughable. His goddaughter, the victim, clearly didn't want to testify. That was the death knell of the prosecution. I'm sure Kelly promised her that she'd be set for life if she kept her mouth shut.

I know that if the victim doesn't testify it's essentially impossible to win a child porn case, but for the love of God, c'mon.