Roman Polanski arrested in Zürich

[The Minsky Moment]

To my mind, the really odd question is why the prosecutor would agree to such a deal in the first place.

I believe the issue was that under the INS rules at the time, if the sentence reached a certain length, he would be subject to mandatory deportation; the prosecutor's office may have had some sympathy for him and wanted to arrange a deal so that he could stay and continue making movies in SoCal.

Presumably the purpose of the psych eval was to "test" his contention that he would suffer uniquely from incarceration and/or that the offense resulted from some treatable temporary derangement.

[Agelastus]

Did I read that correctly earlier?

He'd been in jail for 42 days and ran away rather than face another 48? When most of us seem to feel he should have had at least a 20 year jail sentence?

I know American prisons are supposed to be bad, but really, that's ridiculous.

I believe he ran away because he learned that the judge was going to throw out his sweetheart 48 day plea bargain, and make him go to trial - and face a real sentence.

I'm pretty sure you are right. He figured the jig was up so he fled to France quicker than a Black Panther on the lam. Will he: being selling BBQs in 5 years?

This, edited down, has been posted by Martinus -

PARIS, France (CNN) --

...

According to court documents, Polanski, his lawyer and the prosecutor thought they'd worked out a deal that would spare Polanski from prison and let the teen avoid a public trial.

But the original judge in the case, who is now dead, first sent the director to maximum-security prison for 42 days while he underwent psychological testing. Then, on the eve of his sentencing, the judge told attorneys he was inclined to send Polanski back to prison for another 48 days.

Polanski fled the United States for France, where he was born.

...

So he ran away to avoid a further 48 days in jail, having apparently already been in jail for 42, or so it seems.

[KRonn]

To my mind, the really odd question is why the prosecutor would agree to such a deal in the first place.

Maybe at that time child sex/rape crimes weren't as big of issues as they've become today, with a lot more recognition of the problem? Kind of like drunken driving - decades ago laws weren't nearly as strict, and there wasn't as much focus on it as a problem, at least contrasted to today's thinking, attitudes and laws.

[Ed Anger]

He was angry that the people pounding his ass in jail weren't 13 years old.

[Malthus]

To my mind, the really odd question is why the prosecutor would agree to such a deal in the first place.

Maybe at that time child sex/rape crimes weren't as big of issues as they've become today, with a lot more recognition of the problem? Kind of like drunken driving - decades ago laws weren't nearly as strict, and there wasn't as much focus on it as a problem, at least contrasted to today's thinking, attitudes and laws.

I dunno. My impression isn't that such matters were viewed more leniently, but rather that they were more often ignored or hushed up, because the scandal was considered too horrible to face, or people simply could not believe anyone would do such things.

[The Minsky Moment]

So he ran away to avoid a further 48 days in jail, having apparently already been in jail for 42, or so it seems.

the deal was a 48 day recommendation, but the psych eval portion would be credited as time served.  So if the judge chose to accept the recommendation, Polanski would be freed (or serve the additional 6 days).

Instead he gave the attorneys a heads up he was going to give RP *another* 48 days (it seems rather strange to me that a judge would reveal his sentence just prior to the actual sentencing date but Cal can be weird sometimes I guess).  And then RP bolted.

Incredibly stupid move, but there it goes.

[alfred russel]

So assuming he gets extradited, what happens? I assume the 30+ year flight is another crime that will have a sentenced attached, but what do you think he is looking at for the original conviction?

[The Brain]

45 years in Quentin.

[KRonn]

So assuming he gets extradited, what happens? I assume the 30+ year flight is another crime that will have a sentenced attached, but what do you think he is looking at for the original conviction?

Gitmo isn't closed yet!   

Man, that'd really piss off those Hollywood and Euro producer types trolling for Polanski's greatness to keep him out of prison, for child rape.

[alfred russel]

So assuming he gets extradited, what happens? I assume the 30+ year flight is another crime that will have a sentenced attached, but what do you think he is looking at for the original conviction?

Gitmo isn't closed yet!   

Man, that'd really piss off those Hollywood and Euro producer types trolling for Polanski's greatness to keep him out of prison, for child rape.

While I certainly wouldn't want to go to Gitmo, I wouldn't want to do time in the California penal system either.

[Caliga]

Polanski Case Exposes Divisions in France

PARIS — While an international team of lawyers fought to free Roman Polanski from a Swiss jail, where he is being held for possible extradition to the United States, the action against the 76-year-old film director is quickly exposing deep fault lines between his supporters in the arts, entertainment and politics and his increasingly outspoken critics.

The reaction gained steam Tuesday after an array of celebrities and French political officials in the Sarkozy administration defended Mr. Polanski, a French and Polish citizen who was arrested Saturday as he arrived in Zurich to attend a film festival. He fled the United States in 1978 just before he was to be sentenced for having sex with a minor — a 13-year-old girl — under a plea agreement in which he avoided other charges including rape and sodomy.

For two days, supporters in the demi-monde of movies and media circulated petitions and took to the airwaves in his defense. Among them was the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, who suggested that perhaps the Swiss had more serious criminal matters to attend to than Mr. Polanski, who, he said, "perhaps had committed a youthful error."

By Tuesday, however, the mood was shifting among French politicians on the right, left and within the ranks of President Nicolas Sarkozy's own center-right party, the UMP. Marc Laffineur, the vice-president of the French assembly and a member of the UMP, took issue with the French culture and foreign minister's remarks supporting Mr. Polanski, saying "the charge of raping a child 13 years old is not something trivial, whoever the suspect is."

Within the Green party, Daniel Cohn-Bendit — a French deputy in the European parliament whose popularity is rising — also criticized Sarkozy administration officials for leaping too quickly to Mr. Polanski's side despite the serious nature of his crime. On the extreme right, the father and daughter politicians Jean and Marine Le Pen also attacked the ministers, saying they were supporting "a criminal pedophile in the name of the rights of the political-artistic class."

Marie-Louise Fort, a French lawmaker in the Assembly who has sponsored anti-incest legislation, said in an interview that she was shocked that Mr. Polanski was attracting support from the political and artistic elite. "I don't believe that public opinion is spontaneously supporting Mr. Polanski at all," she said. "I believe that there is a distinction between the mediagenic class of artists and ordinary citizens that have a vision that is more simple."

The mood was even more hostile in blogs and e-mails to newspapers and news magazines. Of the 30,000 participants in an online poll by the French daily Le Figaro, more than 70 percent said Mr. Polanski, 76, should face justice. And in the magazine Le Point, more than 400 letter writers were almost universal in their disdain for Mr. Polanski.

That contempt was not only directed at Mr. Polanski, but at the French class of celebrities — nicknamed Les People — who are part of Mr. Polanski's rarified Parisian world. Letter writers to Le Point scorned Les People as the "crypto-intelligentsia of our country" who deliver "eloquent phrases that defy common sense."

Still, many others continued to rally to the Oscar-winning director's defense.

Film industry leaders like Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar, Martin Scorsese and Costa Gavras signed a petition with about 100 names that expressed "stupefaction" with the arrest of Mr. Polanski at the Zurich airport. But support was not universal; Luc Besson, a prominent French film director and producer, was not on the list, though he describes himself as a Polanski friend.

"This is a man who I love a lot and know a little bit," Mr. Besson said in a radio interview with RTL Soir. "Our daughters are good friends. But there is one justice, and that should be the same for everyone. I will let justice happen." He added, , "I don't have any opinion on this, but I have a daughter, 13 years old. And if she was violated, nothing would be the same, even 30 years later."

Meanwhile, Mr. Polanski remains in custody somewhere in Zurich; officials have not said exactly where. He was, however, visited by French and Polish diplomats, who afterward pronounced that he was being well treated.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Swiss Criminal Court said it would decide "in the next few weeks" on its response to Mr. Polanski's request for release. Any decision can be appealed, the Swiss Justice Ministry said over the weekend.

[The Brain]

Besson. Note to self: never make principled friends.

[Malthus]

"This is a man who I love a lot and know a little bit," Mr. Besson said in a radio interview with RTL Soir. "Our daughters are good friends. But there is one justice, and that should be the same for everyone. I will let justice happen." He added, , "I don't have any opinion on this, but I have a daughter, 13 years old. And if she was violated, nothing would be the same, even 30 years later."

I'd have serious qualms about letting my 13 year old daughter go over to her friend's house for a sleepover if I was him ... 

[KRonn]

PARIS — While an international team of lawyers fought to free Roman Polanski from a Swiss jail, where he is being held for possible extradition to the United States, the action against the 76-year-old film director is quickly exposing deep fault lines between his supporters in the arts, entertainment and politics and his increasingly outspoken critics.

Now I have to say the heck with Polanski, and all those who support his flight from justice. So many of those supporting him are probably "champions" of the little guy, the down trodden, social justice for all, yet this guy is able to obtain an international stable of lawyers that only the rich and famous can do! Oh, they irony!     

[Martinus]

Polanski Case Exposes Divisions in France

PARIS — While an international team of lawyers fought to free Roman Polanski from a Swiss jail, where he is being held for possible extradition to the United States, the action against the 76-year-old film director is quickly exposing deep fault lines between his supporters in the arts, entertainment and politics and his increasingly outspoken critics.

The reaction gained steam Tuesday after an array of celebrities and French political officials in the Sarkozy administration defended Mr. Polanski, a French and Polish citizen who was arrested Saturday as he arrived in Zurich to attend a film festival. He fled the United States in 1978 just before he was to be sentenced for having sex with a minor — a 13-year-old girl — under a plea agreement in which he avoided other charges including rape and sodomy.

For two days, supporters in the demi-monde of movies and media circulated petitions and took to the airwaves in his defense. Among them was the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, who suggested that perhaps the Swiss had more serious criminal matters to attend to than Mr. Polanski, who, he said, "perhaps had committed a youthful error."

By Tuesday, however, the mood was shifting among French politicians on the right, left and within the ranks of President Nicolas Sarkozy's own center-right party, the UMP. Marc Laffineur, the vice-president of the French assembly and a member of the UMP, took issue with the French culture and foreign minister's remarks supporting Mr. Polanski, saying "the charge of raping a child 13 years old is not something trivial, whoever the suspect is."

Within the Green party, Daniel Cohn-Bendit — a French deputy in the European parliament whose popularity is rising — also criticized Sarkozy administration officials for leaping too quickly to Mr. Polanski's side despite the serious nature of his crime. On the extreme right, the father and daughter politicians Jean and Marine Le Pen also attacked the ministers, saying they were supporting "a criminal pedophile in the name of the rights of the political-artistic class."

Marie-Louise Fort, a French lawmaker in the Assembly who has sponsored anti-incest legislation, said in an interview that she was shocked that Mr. Polanski was attracting support from the political and artistic elite. "I don't believe that public opinion is spontaneously supporting Mr. Polanski at all," she said. "I believe that there is a distinction between the mediagenic class of artists and ordinary citizens that have a vision that is more simple."

The mood was even more hostile in blogs and e-mails to newspapers and news magazines. Of the 30,000 participants in an online poll by the French daily Le Figaro, more than 70 percent said Mr. Polanski, 76, should face justice. And in the magazine Le Point, more than 400 letter writers were almost universal in their disdain for Mr. Polanski.

That contempt was not only directed at Mr. Polanski, but at the French class of celebrities — nicknamed Les People — who are part of Mr. Polanski's rarified Parisian world. Letter writers to Le Point scorned Les People as the "crypto-intelligentsia of our country" who deliver "eloquent phrases that defy common sense."

Still, many others continued to rally to the Oscar-winning director's defense.

Film industry leaders like Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar, Martin Scorsese and Costa Gavras signed a petition with about 100 names that expressed "stupefaction" with the arrest of Mr. Polanski at the Zurich airport. But support was not universal; Luc Besson, a prominent French film director and producer, was not on the list, though he describes himself as a Polanski friend.

"This is a man who I love a lot and know a little bit," Mr. Besson said in a radio interview with RTL Soir. "Our daughters are good friends. But there is one justice, and that should be the same for everyone. I will let justice happen." He added, , "I don't have any opinion on this, but I have a daughter, 13 years old. And if she was violated, nothing would be the same, even 30 years later."

Meanwhile, Mr. Polanski remains in custody somewhere in Zurich; officials have not said exactly where. He was, however, visited by French and Polish diplomats, who afterward pronounced that he was being well treated.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Swiss Criminal Court said it would decide "in the next few weeks" on its response to Mr. Polanski's request for release. Any decision can be appealed, the Swiss Justice Ministry said over the weekend.

Yeah the developments in Poland are almost the same.