Roman Polanski

[Huggers]

He did the crime, should he do the time? Discuss.

[silverfox]

What's your view on the subject?

[Huguenot]

Is that the only discussion - I thought he had 'done the time', but the judge changed his mind afterwards?

If you're asking whether the time was enough, that's a different thing - but it would be worth considering double jeopardy.

[mockney piers]

Innocent until proven guilty is traditional.

But then it's usually the way that if you're accused of a crime you go to trial and defend yourself. Shows the defern e to celebrity that it's taken over thirty years for this to happen.

[mockney piers]

Helps to read what was going on I guess, I'd always assumed he'd fled on being accused. Didn't realised he'd been convicted and admitted to it.

Well have to agree with the OP in that case.

[silverfox]

The philosopher Professor AC Grayling covers this subject quite thoroughly in today's Times

".. . Let us first clarify one thing about the case of Roman Polanski: the film director was convicted of a crime, and skipped the jurisdiction before he could be made to pay the penalty for it. His is not a case where it is still moot whether he committed a crime or not: he pleaded guilty. Nor therefore is it a case where a ?statute of limitations? might apply, that is, a statute saying that a prosecution can only be brought against a person within a certain period after a crime occurred..."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6852996.ece

While I don't agree with all his points in the article I'm afraid I have to conclude that he shouldn't get away with it - justice has to be seen to be done.

[Huggers]

My view is that he should have faced up to it at the time and saved himself a lot of trouble.

[Bellenden Belle]

What is extraordinary is that he continued to be held in such high esteem by the industry. How can such a thing be so easily overlooked? Perhaps it indicates just how little regard was given to crimes such as rape thirty years ago? Or has little changed?

[Huguenot]

I thought he was given a plea bargain that the judge reneged on?

He claims that if it hadn't been offered the plea bargain he would have requested a trial.

Likewise if the judge hadn't offered a plea bargain, I don't see how Polanski would have been free to go.

Don't get me wrong, I don't see any other option if the charges are upheld than that he should be returned to the punishment he deserved for a thoroughly unpleasant crime.

[silverfox]

From Wikipedia (now unlocked after yesterday's row about contributions to his entry)

"...Polanski was initially charged...with rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14, and furnishing a controlled substance (methaqualone) to a minor. These charges were dismissed under the terms of his plea bargain, and he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor...

Following the plea agreement, according to the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, the court ordered Polanski to report to a state prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation, but granted a stay of ninety days to allow him to complete his current project. Under the terms set by the court, he was permitted to travel abroad. Polanski returned to California and reported to Chino State Prison for the evaluation period, and was released after 42 days. On February 1, 1978, Polanski fled to London, where he maintained residency. A day later he traveled on to France, where he held citizenship, avoiding the risk of extradition to the U.S. by Britain. Consistent with its extradition treaty with the United States, France can refuse to extradite its own citizens. An extradition request later filed by U.S. officials was denied. The United States government could have requested that Polanski be prosecuted on the California charges by the French authorities..."

[mockney piers]

It is all q bit weird isn't it. So the psychological evaluation was presumably to work out if the reason he comitted the 'lesser crime' of raping a minor was because he was mad or just your common-or-garden sex pest?

But let's not allow that to get in the way of finishing your film sir, fawn fawn.

Freakish!

[mockney piers]

O hav to say Wienstein'sargumemt in the Indy is particulay weak.

Basically he's a nice guy who's suffered a bit, the fact that he wasn't slapped on the wrist is a miscarriage of justice and as for the so called crime faggeddaboudit.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/harvey-weinstein-polanski-has-served-his-time-and-must-be-freed-1794699.html

[Jeremy]

I've always found it strange how he was able to pick up his career after all this.

If this stuff about the plea bargain is true, can we expect a re-trial?

[SeanMacGabhann]

Call me a square from the past, but before everyone brings up their own take, shouldn't the views of the woman in question be taken into account?

She is still in no doubt that what he did to her was wrong but she said it paled into insignificance compared to what the media subsequently did to her. Her views on Polanski are that he "made a terrible mistake but he paid for it"

so, given that he releases films every few years where there is ample opportunity to condemn him, what is all of this about now? She doesn't want it, he doesn't want it and given the various shenanigans in lawyers offices at the time, the legal system doesn't seem to benefit from it

[TJ]

To me I simply see it as a case of a convicted criminal going on the run. No more no less.

I amazes me he has been able to travel and work so freely, which does indeed raise many questions about his colleagues over these years.

Unless of course he didn't do the crime, but in which case, why admit guilt?

Until he is proven innocent., I think he needs to be banged up for the 15 years he should have served. With his oscar for a reminder.

[mockney piers]

I'm sorry Sean, but a serious crime was committed. He drugged a 13 year old girl and scared her into submission in order to rape and sodomise her. I can understand that many years down the line she finds it a subject of some embarassment, but that's hardly the point is it.

Dominic Lawson has a rather emotive attack on Polanski alsoin the Indy today, but most of it is fair, would those somquickmto condemn this arrest of a figure of genius have been sonic their thiteen year old daughter had been drugged and raped?

It really a pretty bad 'so-called' crime. It's the power of celebrity that really disturbs me.

[mockney piers]

I'm sorry Sean, but a serious crime was committed. He drugged a 13 year old girl and scared her into submission in order to rape and sodomise her and told her not to tell her mother of 'their little secret', pretty predatory behaviour. I can understand that many years down the line she finds it a subject of some embarassment, but that's hardly the point is it.

Dominic Lawson has a rather emotive attack on Polanski alsoin the Indy today, but most of it is fair, would those somquickmto condemn this arrest of a figure of genius have been sonic their thiteen year old daughter had been drugged and raped?

It really a pretty bad 'so-called' crime. It's the power of celebrity that really disturbs me.

[mockney piers]

I'm sorry Sean, but a serious crime was committed. He drugged a 13 year old girl and scared her into submission in order to rape and sodomise her and told her not to tell her mother of 'their little secret', pretty predatory behaviour(though obviously not as bad as photographing people in a park). I can understand that many years down the line she finds it a subject of some embarassment, but that's hardly the point is it.

Dominic Lawson has a rather emotive attack on Polanski alsoin the Indy today, but most of it is fair, would those somquickmto condemn this arrest of a figure of genius have been sonic their thiteen year old daughter had been drugged and raped?

It really a pretty bad 'so-called' crime. It's the power of celebrity that really disturbs me.

[Brendan]

If it had been anyone else the consensuses would be that the cops caught up with him and he got his comeuppance.

[SeanMacGabhann]

If they had been actively hunting him maybe

I'm not trying to exhonerate him here, not in the slightest. I just thought it might be worth adding the victim's comments to the debate. They seem pertinent to the whole thing. If you were her, what would YOU want to happen next?

That said, I genuinely I don't understand the sudden interest in his capture

It's not as if he has been found after all these years so this is something that can be "righted" - he has been in public the whole time and there hasn't been an appetite to pursue him to any great extent. The documentary made 7 years ago which examined the case didn't lead to mass calls for his incarceration and the comments made by the victim at the time have been repeated by her in subsequent years.

[Brendan]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

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> I'm not trying to exhonerate him here, not in the

> slightest. I just thought it might be worth adding

> the victim's comments to the debate. They seem

> pertinent to the whole thing. If you were her,

> what would YOU want to happen next?

You know that isn?t how criminal justice systems work. May as well ask the families of murder victims to decide on how the murderers should be punished. Or perhaps a judge should ask me what he should do with the guy who nicked my car.

Why now and not many years ago is a valid question though.

[mockney piers]

The US has made no secret that they've been afer him for years.

I think the French enjoy winding them up though so were happy not to let him go on extradition. There are some rumours that the US did a bit of a deal with Switzerland, but who knows.

This sort of thing does happen from time to time, Pinochet springs to mind. It wasn't a sudden interet in his past crimes it was responding to a subpeoana to a Spanish trial. I seem to recall tha there are a few Osraelis who can't come to Europe for outstanding war crimes charges.

[HAL9000]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

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> I don't understand the sudden interest in his capture

Apparently, Polanski's lawyer made some sort of legal application in California recently that caused the file to be re-opened. The police then googled his name and found a website listing him as scheduled to receive an award in Switzerland. An extradition request was made and the rest is history.

[silverfox]

I suppose we shouldn't assume he'll be sentenced to incarceration. As far as I can see he hasn't yet been sentenced because he scarpered before that could happen and it could yet be probation or some other sentence

[mockney piers]

Isn't itnpractically de rigeur for shlebs in the US to be sentenced to a few days and spend fifteen minutes in the nick?