I’m going to break our tradition of no posts on Sunday because this is a story I have followed my entire life. A pedophile that the Hollyweirdo’s admire has been detained:
Director Roman Polanski has been taken into custody by Swiss police on a 31-year-old U.S. arrest warrant, organizers of the Zurich Film Festival said Sunday.
Polanski 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" recently sought dismissal of his case on grounds of 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 traveled to Switzerland to receive an award for his lifetime of work as a director.
They 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.
Here are some things that the AP neglected to mention:
- The 13 year old was given drugs by Polanski before he molested her – He admitted this in his guilty plea.
- Polanski sought dismissal only AFTER the Judge had passed away and AFTER a documentary favorable to Polanski suggested wrong doings. Also, the judge reneged on the plea bargain AFTER Polanski fled the country. The Judge had actually given him permission to finish his current project before going to jail which is how he was able to flee. ALSO, when Polanski was given permission to finish his project he had only served 42 out of a 90 day court ordered psychiatric evaluation.
The initial charges against Polanski was “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”. The Plea Bargain reduced these charges to “engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor”. Basically, he got off with a slap on the wrist and still fled the country. - Polanski was 44 years old when he molested the 13 year old girl.
Hollyweird has been critical of the arrest warrant stating that he had “served his time” because he was unable to come to America to receive all his awards. He has continue to make movies and become a multi millionaire while avoiding arrest.
Now we have all the legal mumbo jumbo to go through before he is sent back here to face the court. I’m not holding my breath that anything will happen, but at least some countries think he should be held accountable for raping a 13 year old.
Good news, it will be interesting to see what happens, my guess is a slap on the wrist because he’s a pervert.
Hopefully the man gets life in prison. What he did to that girl was monstrous.
Hey Richard Norris! Great to see you!
I say he’ll be named “Sexual Freedom Czar” by Obamas administration and then run for president on the democratic ticket in 2012! And he’ll probably win! He’ll be the MSM’s new darling.
MK –
ROFLMAO!!!!!!
I was watching The Today Show this morning and the only question they seemed to have was “why now”? It was obvious they were upset by the arrest. How sick is that!
Stu said her heard that the victim settled out of court on a civil law suit and ever since has been saying she forgives him and shouldn’t go to jail…….I’ll look into this and let everyone know….
I just read an article about the victim this a.m. She is quoted as saying not only that she had forgiven him but had actually written to the DA? to ask that the charges be dropped. She is also quoted as having said that as gross as the original rape was, it was the media that had made her life hell. That is rather telling, too, in a sad way. The article is here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/09/28/2009-09-28_roman_polanskis_victim_now_45_got_over_it_long_ago.html
This just cracks me up. We are supposed to let it go because Polanski is better with a camera than other pedophiles and he has run from justice for so long that the victim just wants it over.
To be blunt, I don’t think that whether or not the victim forgives him is or should be of the ultimate concern when prosecuting a rapist, especially a child rapist. I would hope that all victims of rape come to be able to forgive their attackers on some level, for their own emotional well-being. That’s not why we prosecute rapists. We prosecute them because they are a danger to society. Because they have harmed another person and we as a society do not tolerate that.
If a victim wants her rapist to die, that doesn’t mean we kill him. If she wants him to be free from prosecution, that doesn’t mean we let him off the hook. It isn’t about, “You hurt me, so I get to decide what happens to you, and if I decide to be merciful then you’re lucky.”
That said, I can absolutely understand the desire to just have something GO AWAY already, especially when it’s so public. There is a lot of trauma involved in just having the ways in which you were degraded repeatedly brought up, much less blasted from every major news outlet every few years. The rape was a terrible crime Polanski committed against this poor woman, but fleeing was another crime, because that action has made his abuse a constant, life-long presence for her.
The treatment of this on Huffington Post was the worst I’ve seen — it made me almost light my computer on fire, especially this paragraph: “But there is more to this story. The 13-year old model “seduced” by Polanski had been thrust onto him by her mother, who wanted her in the movies. The girl was just a few weeks short of her 14th birthday, which was the age of consent in California. (It’s probably 13 by now!) Polanski was demonized by the press, convicted, and managed to flee, fearing a heavy sentence.”
As if the fact that her mother wanted her daughter to have a career implicates the daughter. As if wanting your daughter to be “in the movies” is synonymous with pimping her out. As if the fact that the girl was weeks away from the age of LEGAL consent has any bearing whatsoever on the fact that she was legally incapable of consenting, and was raped, regardless of her age, under almost any definition. As if fearing a heavy sentence for a despicable crime makes it sympathetic and understandable when you flee.
Disgusting. Like how the vast majority of the population thinks that Lolita is a book about a naughty little seductress. Ugh. Polanski is a gifted filmmaker and artist, with a lot of tragic stuff in his past. He did awful things to a child. Neither of those realities negates the other.
so does she forgive him or does she just not want the media attention again?
Rosie,
I think the answer is yes to both of those questions. I read she reached an “undisclosed settlement” with Polanski in a civil court in the 90′s (if memory serves), which was her right to do. Not that I am implying that that is why “she forgave him” or “wants it over”. I can understand why she would like this just to go away. It has been 32 years…
Now with that said, simply put “it is the states responsibility to seek justice for a crime”; especially one as egregious as this.
Here we go:
In 1994 the victim – 17 years after the rape – said she wanted the criminal case settled, and that included Polanski being allowed to return to American with no jail time.
That was just one year after the undisclosed out of court settlement was reached. The D.A. said he had never been approached by the victim until after the civil lawsuit settlement was completed.
http://articles.latimes.com/1994-08-23/local/me-30174_1_roman-polanski
BTW –
In 1994 the media did not know the name of the victim. Because she was a minor her name was never released until SHE came forward and said it was her. And she didn’t come forward until after the civil lawsuit was settled and a pro-Polanski documentary was being filmed. (She was in that film).
I have a question…for those of you that do not believe in objective right and wrong…does it upset you that Roman raped this girl because it was against the girls will or does the idea of an older man having sex with a 13 year old girl, any girl, consenting or not, bother you. I guess what I’m asking is what do you think was “wrong” with this picture?
“so does she forgive him or does she just not want the media attention again?”
No, she got payed off with a lot of money. He was found guilty, her opinion should not matter, he broke the law. Its disgusting the MSM is whitewashing this whole thing, they protect their friends, even if they sodomize 13 year old girls.
Sigh. I watched a bit of Bill O’Reilley tonight and the segment was on this situation. The “liberal” didn’t think the guy should have been arrested and pointed to his victim’s wish to let him off pretty much implying that her wish trumps all. I found myself yelling “OK, what if she wanted him dead???”
I got that here! Still, it is amazing that any woman, faced with what that man did to a child, could say that it is no big deal. I often think that there is something terribly wrong with the liberal mind.
I take it that the statute of limitations are unlimited when it comes to the rape and/or molestation of minors?
If so- why don’t they have unlimited statute of limitations of rape of adults? Rape is rape, no matter the age of the victim.
He apparently had a plea bargain worked out and was given a big 44 days in jail! (I am staggered by this) I don’t get the timeline at all but apparently, when he fled, he has in the middle of a psychiatric evaluation. Doesn’t that add to the crime? Yet all I hear is that he has been arrested and is being brought back to face the rape charge. But doesn’t being a fugitive from justice carry its own charge and jail term?
Lily,
are you having a hard time getting on RT’s site? I keep getting an error message!
There are statutes of limitations for rape and in many states it is between 7 and 10 years. Polanski was convicted, there is no statute of limitation of flight from justice for a felony. Civil lawsuits, I believe, do not have limitations. If Polanski had fled prior to trial he would have eventually have outlasted the warrant for his arrest.
I still find it sad that because it is better with a camera than the average pedophile he is forgiven by some.
Yes! I sent you a message via the contact tab on this blog. I guess you didm’t see it?