Big Fat Story
Was there to receive lifetime achievement award.
Swiss authorities arrested Roman Polanski on Saturday in connection to a 1978 U.S. warrant issued when the director absconded following his guilty plea to the rape of a 13-year-old girl. Though Polanski’s been persona non grata in nations with American extradition treaties—home nation France is not required to extradite its own citizens—he hasn’t exactly been living like a prisoner. Between his guilty plea and today, Polanski has directed nine films, including The Pianist, which earned an Academy Award. Swiss officials say they arrested Polanski because they had a “valid request” from the United States, and they were notified in advance that Polanski would be in Zurich. France is speaking out: French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand is “dumbfounded” by the arrest and “strongly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already experienced so many of them.” Swiss authorities will hold Polanski until America’s extradition request goes through, at which point Polanski will have a chance to contest it.
Photo: Ennio Leanza, Keystone / AP Photo
Quietly unsealed 26 years after the fact, the transcripts from Polanski’s grand jury hearing paint a disturbingly gruesome picture. Thirteen-year-old victim Samantha Gailey (who, under married name Samantha Geimer, now speaks openly about the crime) described the 43-year-old Polanski photographing her nude for what he claimed would be a French Vogue editorial, then anally raping her in a home belonging to Jack Nicholson. In the transcripts—which are now available on The Smoking Gun—Gailey describes Polanski forcing himself upon her after she says “no” repeatedly and tells him she wants to go home. Originally charged with rape, sodomy, child rape, and providing drugs to a minor, Polanski eventually entered a plea bargain where he pleaded guilty only to statutory rape.
Photo: Scope Features / Landov
After his guilty plea, Polanski was required to get a psychiatric evaluation in a state prison, but was also granted a 90-day deferral during which he was allowed to travel. After his first trip to Europe, he returned for the psychiatric evaluation; after completing it, however, he fled to England and then France. Polanski, who was born in France and is a French citizen, has spent the past three decades there, and mostly avoided going to countries that have extradition treaties with the U.S.—although over time he became bolder. At least twice, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office received word that Polanski was traveling to a country with an American extradition treaty and made arrangements for his arrest. Both times, though, Polanski learned of the plans and canceled his trips. According to a source familiar with the case, the U.S. Marshals Service has come close to arresting Polanski about half a dozen times. “For one reason or another, it just didn't work out," said the source, who spoke to the Los Angeles Times on condition of anonymity.
Remembering Roman’s Fugitive Life
After more than 30 years fleeing the law, celebrated filmmaker and admitted child rapist Roman Polanski was arrested in Zurich this weekend. The Daily Beast offers a refresher course on his sprawling, salacious case.
Polanski ‘was wrong,’ she says, but ‘he’s paid for it.’
When The Pianist was nominated for an Academy Award, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin sought out Polanski’s victim, who had since married and lived on Kauai’s North Shore as Samantha Geimer. Geimer stood firm on what happened to her and noted how traumatizing the rape was—and also how traumatizing the ensuing media circus was, when her family was “besieged” with rumors about “the most awful things” following Polanski speaking publicly about the charges. “Straight up, what he did to me was wrong,” Geimer said, but noted, “He made a terrible mistake but he’s paid for it.” Last January she sought to have the case dismissed.
Photo: Scope Features / Landov
But without Polanski’s presence, judge can’t hear arguments.
Polanski’s criminal entanglements reentered the public eye in 2008, when documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired provided evidence, his lawyers argued, of “repeated unethical and unlawful ex parte communications” between a deputy district attorney and the judge. Polanski’s lawyers moved to have the case dismissed, but said Polanski had to appear in court to get the ruling. Fearing that his side would lose the hearing, and he would be sent to jail, Polanski refused. Wanted and Desired swayed many to believe Polanski didn’t get a fair shake back in 1977, including many high-profile writers, artists, and officials. But Salon’s Bill Wyman points out that it does not dispute that Polanski did, indeed, plead guilty to having sex with a minor and broke the law by fleeing the country despite his pending jail sentence. What’s more, Wyman argues, the documentary tries to excuse Polanski’s crime with sympathetic material about his troubled background and shaming of the victim.
Photo: Everett Collection
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What a loser.
He directed the best version of Oliver Twist I've ever seen.
I just want to remind everyone that Roman Polanski drugged and forcibly sodomized a 13-year-old girl.
That is all.
he's great, no doubt, but he drugged and screwed (anally, as well!) a girl 13 years of age
he does the time
and the word holocaust should not even enter into the equation, like that gives him some kind of pass-- and living in france is not quite the same as doing hard time, so no, he has not paid for the crime
'in exile in France' - there are worse fates I'm sure.
This is so utterly repugnant. That he has stayed in the public spotlight and brazenly flouted the law all these years is wrong. I read about this in another article and all sorts of artsy types expressed outrage over how HE has been treated. Polanski and his disgusting group of supporters should be shunned from society and the arts.
My God read this! He is a monster:
http://americaspeaksink.com/2009/09/will-roman-polanski-be-raped-in-pris on/
why even bother to make him come to USA.....let him stay over there, we really shouldn't be wanting his face on the news ......
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