Roman Polanski detained in Zurich

[Fontenrose]

How Hollywood takes sides with a r*pist is a slap in the face of all victims of sexual assault.

An article added up the U.S. supporters and they were mostly New York movie people, not Hollywood.

That is really amazing how his support for Polanski brought down the French Minister of Culture. Of course someone who purchases sex from children in the third world thinks r*pe is fine.

 

[Fontenrose]

Article in NY Times:

...
Roman Polanski’s arrest on Sept. 26 to face a decades-old charge of having sex with a 13-year-old girl stirred global furor over both Mr. Polanski’s original misdeed and the way the authorities have handled it — along with some sharp reminders that, when it comes to adult sex with the under age, things have changed.
Manners, mores and law enforcement have become far less forgiving of sex crimes involving minors in the 31 years since Mr. Polanski was charged with both r*pe and sodomy involving drugs. He fled rather than face what was to have been a 48-day sentence after he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor.
But if he is extradited from Switzerland, Mr. Polanski could face a more severe punishment than he did in the 1970s, as a vigorous victims’ rights movement, a family-values revival and revelations of child abuse by clergy members have all helped change the moral and legal framework regarding sex with the young.
Mr. Polanski’s lawyers — including Reid Weingarten, a Washington power player — are likely to argue that Mr. Polanski does not even qualify for extradition from Switzerland, because he was set to be given a jail term of less than one year when he fled to France in 1978.
But Stephen L. Cooley, the Los Angeles County district attorney, has signaled that he believes much stiffer penalties may be in order. Questioned by reporters just after Mr. Polanski’s arrest, he said the filmmaker had received a “very, very, very lenient sentence” that “would never be achievable under today’s laws.”
In 1978 officials argued that the plea agreement would spare Mr. Polanski’s young victim the notoriety of a trial. But the soft deal was also in tune with the more permissive times, when sex with the under age was often winked at, especially among entertainment world sophisticates.
...

Both the law and sentencing practices have changed since Mr. Polanski was arrested. Robert Weisberg, who teaches criminal law at Stanford University’s law school, said Mr. Polanski would face a stiffer punishment now, even for the single unlawful sex charge.
“If he were sentenced for just that crime today, a good prediction would be he would get three years in state prison,” he said.

since he fled before his final sentence was determined, it appears Polanski faces a possible three years.

There is also the question of whether the victim has been able to collect the $500K award from the civil suit.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ Most interesting.

I daresay most of us have also changed our minds about what being sophisticated means

 

[NakedIfIWantTo]

^
Thanks for the article Fontenrose

 

[shoesexy]

I daresay most of us have also changed our minds about what being sophisticated means

No kidding......how self-serving is that characterization?

I somehow doubt even 1970s Hollywood "sophisticates" considered drugging & anally r*ping little girls acceptable. I mean .... people had daughters, didn't they???

 

[Fontenrose]

In the 70s people were defining what "free love" meant, with the help of the drug culture, and sophistication was no longer Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and martinis.

 

[shoesexy]

How a girl's stark words got lost in the Polanski spectacle
Samantha Gailey, at 13, was unequivocal in her testimony against Polanski. But her account was turned into something almost benign

By Joe Mozingo
October 25, 2009
Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-polanski25-2009oct25,0,5115267.story

In the flat light of the grand jury room, a nervous, deeply embarrassed 13-year-old girl sat alone -- no attorney, no mother, no friend -- facing three tiers of middle-aged strangers silently studying her from their leather armchairs.

The questions that day in March 1977 were clinical in tone.

The answers would set off a furor from Hollywood to London and Paris that has yet to subside.

Samantha Gailey -- sandy brown hair, dimpled chin, missing class at her junior high in Woodland Hills -- described her alleged r*pe by director Roman Polanski two weeks before at Jack Nicholson's home above Franklin Canyon. She clutched a small heart charm her friend had given her.

"After he kissed you, did he say anything?" asked the prosecutor, Roger Gunson.

"No," the girl said.

"Did you say anything?"

"No, besides I was just going, 'No, come on, let's go home. . . .' He said, 'I'll take you home soon.' "

"Then what happened?"

"And then he went down and started performing cuddliness."

"What does that mean?"

"It means he went down on me, or he placed his mouth on my vagina. . . . I was ready to cry. I was kind of -- I was going, 'No. Come on. Stop it.' But I was afraid."

Samantha's testimony that day was unequivocal: She had kept trying to get away from him, putting her clothes back on, saying no repeatedly. She had made up a lie about having asthma to get out of a Jacuzzi. He persisted. She was scared. She did not physically fight him off. He began to have sex with her, then concerned she might get pregnant, switched to anal sex. When he drove her home, he told her not to tell her mom, adding, "You know, when I first met you, I promised myself I wouldn't do anything like this with you."

A generation of spectacle would follow Polanski's indictment, his plea deal, his flight from the country, allegations of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct, his decades of exile and critical success, his Oscar, a sympathetic HBO documentary last year, his rearrest in Switzerland last month.

Along the way, various people would scrub the core allegations into something more benign -- a probation officer would deem the crime a "spontaneous" act of "poor judgment," a prison psychiatrist would call it "playful mutual eroticism."

But Samantha's stark testimony has never been seriously impugned, in or out of court. When she sued Polanski years later for sexual assault, he pleaded the 5th when asked if he illegally gave her champagne and part of a quaalude pill, then performed oral copulation on her and sodomized her...

emphasis added

Full article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-polanski25-2009oct25,0,5115267.story

 

[shoesexy]

Gore Vidal rips Roman Polanski r*pe victim as ‘hooker’

Boston Herald
By Herald Staff
Sunday, November 1, 2009

The 83-year-old Vidal recently told The Atlantic magazine he has no sympathy for Samantha Geimer, Polanski’s victim.

“Look, am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she’s being taken advantage of?” said Vidal, a screenwriter and novelist, who ran in the same circles as Polanski in the 1970s. He said the media pushed a false image of Geimer.

Polanski pleaded guilty in 1977 after being indicted for r*ping the girl. He fled to Europe before he was sentenced. He was arrested in Switzerland in September and faces extradition.

http://news.bostonherald.com/entert....bg?articleid=1208725&srvc=home&position=also

 

[shoesexy]

Polanski's French lawyer has been increasing bail "offers" to the Swiss authorities, who have so far rejected the non-cash amounts.

Polanski will now offer "a very, very significant" cash amount to spring himself.

Who says you can't buy yourself out of trouble???

 

[fashionista-ta]

Gore Vidal rips Roman Polanski r*pe victim as ‘hooker’

Boston Herald
By Herald Staff
Sunday, November 1, 2009

The 83-year-old Vidal recently told The Atlantic magazine he has no sympathy for Samantha Geimer, Polanski’s victim.

“Look, am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she’s being taken advantage of?” said Vidal, a screenwriter and novelist, who ran in the same circles as Polanski in the 1970s. He said the media pushed a false image of Geimer.

Polanski pleaded guilty in 1977 after being indicted for r*ping the girl. He fled to Europe before he was sentenced. He was arrested in Switzerland in September and faces extradition.

http://news.bostonherald.com/entert....bg?articleid=1208725&srvc=home&position=also

What a sorry excuse for a human being (preserved in his own vinegar, apparently).

I haven't seen anything that indicates that what he's saying is factual ... but if it were ... how does he think 13 year olds come to be prostitutes anyway? I suspect pedophiles and pimps have one thing in common ... they're able to sniff out children who've already been victimized from a mile away.

 

[shoesexy]

tbc.ca

Emma Thompson Drops Support of Polanski
Requests her name be removed from the petition supporting Polanski's release

http://www.newser.com/story/73345/emma-thompson-drops-support-of-polanski.html

 

[shoesexy]

What Whoopi Goldberg ('Not a r*pe-r*pe'), Harvey Weinstein ('So-Called Crime') et al. Are Saying in Their Outrage Over the Arrest of Roman Polanski

By Calvin Trillin
Deadline Poet
This article appeared in the October 26, 2009 edition of The Nation.

A youthful error? Yes, perhaps.
But he's been punished for this lapse--
For decades exiled from LA
He knows, as he wakes up each day,
He'll miss the movers and the shakers.
He'll never get to see the Lakers.
For just one old and small mischance,
He has to live in Paris, France.
He's suffered slurs and other stuff.
Has he not suffered quite enough?
How can these people get so riled?
He only raped a single child.

Why make him into some Darth Vader
For sodomizing one eighth grader?
This man is brilliant, that's for sure--
Authentically, a film auteur.
He gets awards that are his due.
He knows important people, too--
Important people just like us.
And we know how to make a fuss.
Celebrities would just be fools
To play by little people's rules.
So Roman's banner we unfurl.
He only raped one little girl.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091026/trillin/print

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ I bow to Calvin and kiss his feet. My new favorite poem

 

[Fontenrose]

The Swiss have decided to allow Polanski free on bail of 4.5M. He will be on house arrest at his chalet with electronic monitoring. The money is secured by his Paris residence apparently. Polanski's sister-in-law thanked French president Sarkozy for his intervention. Interestingly, Polanski's friend Woody Allen is putting Sarkozy's wife in a movie it was just announced.

On the bright side, Polanski and his lawyers may drag this out far longer than his punishment in the US would have been.

NY Times:

Swiss officials said on Thursday that they would not challenge a court ruling permitting Roman Polanski to be freed on bail as he fights extradition to the United States to face sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl. On Wednesday the Swiss Federal Criminal Court granted Mr. Polanski’s appeal against detention in exchange for $4.5 million, along with other guarantees like the surrender of his identity papers to ensure he does not leave the country. Still, Interpol issued an advisory to its 188 member countries saying that Mr. Polanski should be arrested if he tried to travel. He fled the United States in 1978 before being sentenced. The Justice Ministry had 10 days to submit an appeal to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, but said on Thursday that it had decided not to. The development means that Mr. Polanski may leave his jail cell and remain under house arrest and electronic monitoring at his holiday chalet, above, in Gstaad, a Swiss resort town.

 

[shoesexy]

Bail for Roman Polanski met with surprise from some legal experts
November 25, 2009 | 1:49 pm
Los Angeles Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lan...et-with-surprise-from-some-legal-experts.html

Roman Polanski is expected to spend the holidays under electronic monitoring at his posh Alpine chalet after a Swiss court agreed to a $4.5-million bail request by the famed director. Legal experts said the bail is likely to lengthen what is expected to be a fierce battle over whether Polanski should be extradited to Los Angeles to face sentencing for unlawful intercourse with a 13-year-old girl more than three decades ago. The decision also raises other questions, given that Polanski fled from the U.S. just before his sentencing in 1978. Swiss justice officials have repeatedly denied his bail requests, saying he’s a flight risk. Under the terms of the bail, Polanski would be restricted to a chalet he owns in Gstaad, a ski resort in the foothills of Mt. Blanc. The town has long been known as a celebrity hangout, with David Niven, Richard Burton and Roger Moore among its frequent visitors in the past.

Dmitry Gorin, a former prosecutor who has represented people overseas facing charges in Los Angeles, said he was surprised the court would grant bail given Polanski's record of fleeing justice. Others agreed. “It is very rare to get bail in an extradition case and especially in cases where the person’s fled,” said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and Loyola law professor. “This is a little like giving bail to O.J. [Simpson] after the Bronco chase.” Levenson said she believes the bail could prolong the extradition process, because Polanski would have less of an incentive to resolve the issue if he is out of jail. “This will dramatically slow down the extradition process,” she said. "A Swiss chalet is a lot nicer than a jail here.” Details about why the court decided to grant bail remain unclear. The Ministry of Justice had argued that Polanski should remain behind bars until extradition is resolved. Switzerland’s justice minister told the Swiss national TV that it was not going to appeal the court ruling.
-- Richard Winton
emphasis added

 

[shoesexy]

Inmate: Roman Polanski gets special treatment in Swiss jail

Details emerge about Roman Polanski's life in Swiss prison
November 27, 2009 | 6:23 am
Los Angeles Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lan...out-roman-polanskis-life-in-swiss-prison.html

With Roman Polanski set to be released on bail, new details are emerging about his time behind bars.

An inmate who served time in the same Swiss prison said the famed director received special treatment.

In an interview with Zurich's Radio One, Yussi Akram said Polanski was able to regularly call his wife and attorneys and communicated frequently with guards at the prison outside the city. Akram also said Polanski's cell was equipped with a special emergency button he could use to summon guards...

cont'd

 

[Danhat Ward]

He is constricted to a Chalet in Gstaad? Poor little man.

 

[Fontenrose]

“It is very rare to get bail in an extradition case and especially in cases where the person’s fled,”... “This will dramatically slow down the extradition process,”

The Canadians took 13 years to extradite a man accused by the Thai government of a huge bank fraud and whom the Canadians let pay for his own luxurious house arrest. And during the whole time the guy perpetrated numerous other frauds over the phone. If the Swiss want to do the French a favour, and Polanski is willing to sit it out in Gstaad instead of Paris...

his horizons have gotten very small though. This could be a worse punishment.

 

[fashionista-ta]

At least now women can just hang up on him.

 

[Label Basher]

Nice diggs

Roman under house arrest[FONT=Arial,Helvetica].[/FONT]

Roman Polanski began his house arrest in a luxury resort in Gstaad. He arrived in a police convoy to a warm welcome from his wife Emmanuelle Seigner and children Morgane and Elvis at his Alpine chalet. His lawyer Georges Kiejman was also there. The family then enjoys the scenery of the town by ice skating, shopping, and walking around town.

zimbio.com