Roman Polanski Finally Arrested.

[The Yosemite Bear]

And at the time (late seventies) the worst offender was Stern which was a simular blight on German journelism as papers owned by murdock are on austrialian english, and american journelism.

[[R_H]]

The woman behind a documentary chronicling filmmaker Roman Polanski's decades-old rape case says his arrest in Zurich last week was a huge surprise.

Marina Zenovich, the director of Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, warns that nobody has anything to gain from the detention of the 76-year-old French-Polish director.

Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Zurich Film Festival, Zenovich said she was "quite shocked" by the arrest. "It's unbelievable," she said.

Zenovich, an American who has been following Polanski's legal problems closely for the past few years, is preparing a sequel to the first film about the director, released to critical acclaim in the US in 2008. Given the upsurge of interest in Polanski, it will go on release in Switzerland on Thursday.

Wanted and Desired looks back at the film director's 1977 trial in Los Angeles, where he pled guilty to having unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. Originally charged with six counts, including rape and sodomy, Polanski was able to strike a deal on a single charge of having sex with a minor.

Filming a documentary about the case wasn't easy for Zenovich. It took two years just to persuade Polanski's lawyers and the trial's prosecution team to talk.

The result led to allegations of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct, including on the part of the late Laurence Rittenband, the judge who oversaw the trial. Rittenbrand had allegedly instructed the prosecutors and defence lawyers on how to behave in a way that would boost his image in the media.
Deal or no deal?

Polanski was ordered to undergo a 90-day psychiatric evaluation at Chino State Prison. During this time, he struck a deal with prosecutors that would have seen him sentenced to 42 days already served. Polanski was released but fled the United States on fears the judge would overrule the plea agreement. He has not set foot on US soil since.

Renovich told swissinfo.ch that her film, which took five years to produce, never sought to downplay Polanski's responsibility for his actions.

"Only two people know what really happened. They don't want to speak, and I don't want to excuse Polanski," she said. "What I wanted to show was what happened afterwards."

Last December, Polanski's lawyers appealed for the case to be dismissed. But Polanski did not return to the United States, and the request was rejected. Another is pending before a higher court in Los Angeles.

In July, Polanski's lawyers filed papers accusing Los Angeles prosecutors of making no attempt for three decades to extradite the director.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that a second document 20 days later charged that "no effort has been made to extradite Mr Polanski". The director's lawyers accused prosecutors of seeking to "preserve the unconstitutional status quo and never address the misconduct head on".

"We were all waiting news from the court of appeal and instead we got the news that Polanski had been arrested," said Zenovich.
"Nobody wanted to speak"

Zenovich initially took an interest in the case after hearing Polanski's victim, Samantha Geimer, and her lawyer say they thought the day the director fled was a sad day for the American justice system. Geimer, now 45, has publicly said she wants the case to disappear. She received an undisclosed cash settlement from Polanski. The Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday, based on newly revealed court documents, that the sum agreed in 1993 was $500,000.

"I found that very strange, but nobody wanted to speak," Zenovich said. "The lawyers were the hardest to convince, but they are also the ones who highlighted the judge's misconduct."

She did not interview Polanski for her first film but wants to talk to him for the sequel.

"This is a Catch-22 situation," Zenovich said. "There are no winners, Samantha Geimer, Polanski nor their families."

However one of her star witnesses has thrown a spanner in the works by admitting that he lied to her.

One of the prosecutors, David Wells, said a few days ago that he had not coached the judge on how to sentence Polanski, contrary to what he claimed on camera in Zenovich's film. That affirmation has helped lead to the renewed appeals from the Polanski lawyers.

She says she is surprised by Wells' turnaround. "The film has been out for over a year, so it seems a bit odd that he now says he lied to me," she added.

Zenovich reckons the latest revelations make little difference, as her film also contains statements by Polanski's lawyer and the other prosecutor, pointing to possible misconduct by the judge.

With open questions remaining, she believes that producing a sequel is an obvious decision. She wonders why Polanski never returned to the US even after the judge, who died in 1993, was taken off the case.

"I have footage through the years, where he says 'I want to go back; I want to settle this'," she told swissinfo.ch.

"I think it's a combination of who this man is and what he went through in this life. He's a survivor. For him these people wanted to kill him. And, in France, he had a family and a life."

Interesting article. 500K dollars isn't much of a settlement though.

[Vympel]

He's been denied bail - quite sane, given that he's a guaranteed flight risk.

Link

Film-maker Roman Polanski has been denied bail ahead of his possible extradition to the US, the Swiss Justice Ministry has said.

Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said the government maintains there is a high risk Polanski may flee if released from custody.

Polanski is being held in Switzerland over his 1977 conviction for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

He left the US in 1978 before he could be sentenced and has never returned.

Polanski was detained in Switzerland on 26 September as he travelled from France to collect a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival.

Release call

"In our view, there is still a very high risk that he will flee and that a release on bail or other measures after a release cannot guarantee Polanski's presence in the extradition procedure," Mr Galli said.

Polanski's legal representatives are also asking Switzerland's highest criminal court to free Polanski.

Mr Galli said the Justice Ministry has submitted a letter to the tribunal explaining why it opposes release.

The arrest of Polanski, who won an Oscar in 2002 for The Pianist, a harrowing story of Nazi-occupied Warsaw, has prompted an outcry among some politicians and Hollywood heavyweights.

But last week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the film-maker should not get special treatment because he is a "big-time movie director".

A petition has been signed by film-makers including Pedro Almodovar and Stephen Frears, and actors including Monica Bellucci and Fanny Ardant, expressing dismay at Polanski's arrest.

Other Hollywood luminaries, including film producer Harvey Weinstein, have called for Polanski's release.

His victim, Samantha Geimer, sued Polanski in December 1988, alleging sexual assault, infliction of emotional distress and seduction.

The film-maker agreed to pay her $500,000 five years later.

But in January this year Ms Geimer asked a US court to drop charges against Polanski, saying the continued publication of details "causes harm to me, my husband and children".

[Solauren]

Something has occured to me.

Why the Hell were the films made by a escaped convict (he plead guilty after all), allowed to be released in the United States?

Hell, why would any country allow to them to released?

[Duckie]

Something has occured to me.

Why the Hell were the films made by a escaped convict (he plead guilty after all), allowed to be released in the United States?

Hell, why would any country allow to them to released?

Why wouldn't they? Do we suddenly censor films by all social undesireables? Lol welcome to the 1950s.

The only law that there is against it are Son of Sam laws, and those would only apply if his films were a documentary about his raping someone.

[Solauren]

There is a marked difference between 'censoring social undesirables' and related work and

'preventing a convincted, escaped rapist from continuing to generate profit and funds' within your own borders.

Quite frankly, banning his work could have been used to apply economic preasure to get him to return (we do that in the UN with countries to get them to co-operate). I mean, the US is a huge movie market. Who'd really want to deal with him if they couldn't release his movies in the US?

[The Romulan Republic]

That's pretty much the reason I've made sure never to pay to see a Polanski film. The only ones I've ever seen were in classes.

That said, I'm not sure I like the idea of banning them in America, and somehow I doubt it would fly under the First Amendment. Don't really know though.

[Elfdart]

We do have Son of Sam laws, where convicted criminals can't profit from books and other media, but IIRC that only applies to convicts who were cashing in on their crimes with tell-all books about what they did. I don't know how that could apply to movies.

[Duckie]

We do have Son of Sam laws, where convicted criminals can't profit from books and other media, but IIRC that only applies to convicts who were cashing in on their crimes with tell-all books about what they did. I don't know how that could apply to movies.

Yeah, that's why I added that it wouldn't apply unless his next film was, like... "If I did her", OJ style. Man, OJ just barely scooted by those laws with his plausible deniability, come to think.

[The Yosemite Bear]

would that mean like "The Ninth Gate" explains the rape as a satianic ritual...

no, hey I love his movies, but think the guy is scum, and is playing the humbert humbert angle way too close.

[Azazal]

Well now isn't this a fine how do you do

Who supports Polanski, why it would be a paedophile in the Frech Governemnt From the BBC

French minister in 'boy sex' row

France's Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand is facing intense pressure over a book he wrote that described paying for "young boys" in Thailand.
The book was written four years ago, before he joined the government, but is back in the headlines following his impassioned support for Roman Polanski.

Polanski has been arrested in Switzerland on child sex charges.
Mr Mitterrand, nephew of late President Francois Mitterrand, is expected to defend himself on TV later on Thursday.
Mr Mitterrand has come under attack from right and left.
In his 2005 book The Bad Life, he wrote: "I got into the habit of paying for boys," saying his attraction to young male prostitutes was not dimmed despite knowing "the sordid details of this traffic".

"All these rituals of the market for youths, the slave market excited me enormously... the abundance of very attractive and immediately available young boys put me in a state of desire."
Mr Mitterrand, 62, has denied being a paedophile, saying the term "boys" was used loosely.

The account of cruising for prostitutes in Thailand attracted little attention when it was published in 2005, when Mr Mitterrand was a TV personality.
'Sex tourism'
He did not share his uncle's socialist politics, and was brought into the centre-right government by President Nicolas Sarkozy in June 2009.
But his strong defence of Polanski has brought the book back into the public eye. Polanski faces deportation to the United States for having had sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

Mr Mitterrand said the US' behaviour, in seeking his extradition, was callous and "horrifying".
Socialist Party spokesman Benoit Hamon told Reuters: "As a minister of culture he has drawn attention to himself by defending a film maker accused of raping a child and he has written a book where he said he took advantage of sexual tourism. To say the least, I find it shocking."
Marine Le Pen, vice president of the right-wing National Front, read excerpts of Mr Mitterrand's book aloud during a television interview, and said it left "an indelible stain on the government".
She called for the culture minister to step down.
"Resign, Mr Mitterrand and perhaps, afterwards we'll be able to give lessons to other people," she said.
Mr Mitterrand said it was an honour to be dragged though the mud by the National Front, and criticised the Socialists for making common cause with the extreme right.
A senior aide to President Sarkozy, Henri Guaino, on Thursday backed the minister, saying the row was "excessive and quite undignified".
But the BBC's Emma Jane Kirby, in Paris, says that the revelation that a senior cabinet minister was involved in sex tourism, just as the country holds negotiations with Thailand to discuss ways of fighting it, will inevitably embarrass Mr Sarkozy's government.

[Hotfoot]

Sickening, and it makes me wonder how many of the supporters of Polanski are child rapists or involved in some way in covering up such disgusting behavior.

[[R_H]]

Sickening, and it makes me wonder how many of the supporters of Polanski are child rapists or involved in some way in covering up such disgusting behavior.

Cohn-Bendit (a Green politician here in Europe) maybe a kiddy fiddler. I'm not sure if he's a Polanski supporter though.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Sickening, and it makes me wonder how many of the supporters of Polanski are child rapists or involved in some way in covering up such disgusting behavior.

has the pope gotten involved yet?

[Vympel]

Sickening, and it makes me wonder how many of the supporters of Polanski are child rapists or involved in some way in covering up such disgusting behavior.

How DARE you? Haven't you read the petition from all those Hollywood luminaries? It's just "a matter of morals". Such a minor thing should just be swept under the rug.

[Darth Yan]

Personally, Polanski's scum, but they did take their sweet fat time arresting him which is is unusual, when they could have caught him in 1979 if they had actually bothered. Also, how exactly do statues of limitations play in this.

[Darth Yan]

Amusingly, Hollywood's the only ones who seem to support him. Everyone else in America seems to have turned against him

[fgalkin]

Personally, Polanski's scum, but they did take their sweet fat time arresting him which is is unusual, when they could have caught him in 1979 if they had actually bothered. Also, how exactly do statues of limitations play in this.

Another person who did not read the thread?

They did not "wait" to catch Polanski, he was convicted back in 79 and has been a fugitive since then.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Darth Yan]

They could have extradited him in 79 if they had really wanted to. It's kind of inconsitent that they wait till now to do so.

[Stofsk]

Also, how exactly do statues of limitations play in this.

Statutes of limitations. And to answer your question, they don't have anything to do with this.

[Lonestar]

They could have extradited him in 79 if they had really wanted to. It's kind of inconsitent that they wait till now to do so.

I'm not sure you understand how France typically approaches extradition of their citizenry.

[Ghost Rider]

They could have extradited him in 79 if they had really wanted to. It's kind of inconsitent that they wait till now to do so.

I see you're going to demonstrate that they had this pull and could run roughshod over France, or is this just pulling from the depths of your gut or ass?

[SCRawl]

Slightly off topic, but I heard the greatest line about Polanski today: he's the original five-foot Pole you wouldn't want to touch anything with. I hear it's kind of an old joke, but I just couldn't help but share it, given recent events.

[The Yosemite Bear]

They could have extradited him in 79 if they had really wanted to. It's kind of inconsitent that they wait till now to do so.

did you not read the damn thing. France and Switzerland said no Go back then.

[Broomstick]

Also, how exactly do statues of limitations play in this.

They don't. There is no statute of limitations on failing to show up for your sentencing.