76-year-old filmmaker Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland last night, stemming from charges in a 1977 unlawful sex with a teenage girl trial that saw the Oscar-winning director flee the U.S. permanently.
A stateside fugitive for life, the director memorably did not show up to receive his 2003 Oscar for “The Pianist.” The award was accepted by Harrison Ford who announced the winner and also appeared in his 1988 film, “Frantic.”
Polanski was set to be in Switzerland to receive a Lifetime Achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival, but instead was greeted by police when he arrived at the airport and was arrested. In case you think this was all an orchestrated ruse, the Zurich festival organizers said they “received this news with great consternation and shock.”
Does this mean extradition of Polanski to the U.S., and was it a coordinated effort with the Los Angeles police or L.A. Justice Department? Doesn’t sound like it. Update 2: L.A. prosecutors planned the arrest according to the L.A. Times. A spokesperson for the Zurich police said the orders were carried out from the Swiss Federal Justice Department in Berne. Legal expatriation seems imminent, but it’s not mentioned in this Reuters report, but bringing Polanski to justice or the U.S. presumably is part of the plan unless he plans to fight the charges in Switzerland. One things for sure, L.A. prosecutors are now playing serious, hig-stakes hardball with the director. Update: The New York Times says the filmmaker is in provisional detention and reports that the Swiss police have had hopes to arrest the director since 2005. However, Polanski had visited in 2008 and was not arrested, a Swiss police spokesperson declined to comment as to why – now we know why obviously, the Swiss weren’t actively after him.
According to the LAT, L.A. prosecutors sent a provisional arrest warrant to the U.S. Justice Department, which presented it to Swiss authorities when they learned he would be attending the event. The U.S. will have to formally submit an extradition request. His lawyers told France-Inter radio, ”For now we are trying to have the arrest warrant lifted in Zurich.”
“If he agrees with an extradition, he could be sent to the U.S. in the next days,” said Guido Ballmer, a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police.
The arrest comes more than nine months after trying to negotiate a surrender with the L.A. Justice Department with an eye towards settlement or having the case eventually dismissed, but the terms of a surrender within the confines of the U.S. could not be agreed upon. Three months ago, Polanski’s lawyers submitted a request to the state appeals court to overturn a May 2009 decision that refused to throw the three-decades-old child sex case out of court. The message from the L.A. office seemed firm and clear from day one: surrender inside the U.S. and we’ll discuss dismissing this case, but Polanski feared he would be jailed or detained in the interim and would not submit to that possible chance.
All of this really started in the summer of 2008 a few months after the release of the Marina Zenovich directed documentary “Roman Polanski: Wanted & Desired,” which illustrated many legal improprieties in the original case, and sparked the filmmaker’s wishes to have the case dismissed on grounds of ethical and prosecutorial misconduct. As reported earlier this year, the now 45-year-old victim, Samantha Geimer, not only publicly asked the trial to be dismissed, she actually filed an affidavit supporting dismissal of the case back in January of 2009, but this likely has no bearing on his failure to to appear at his sentencing on the statutory-rape conviction in 1978 and his subsequent flight from the U.S.
Polanski’s 18th feature-length film, “The Ghost” starring Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams and others finished shooting earlier this year for an intended 2010 release. The Zurich retrospective of Polanski will carry on as planned, but the Times quotes the organizers as being outraged with the authorities, “not only a grotesque farce of justice, but also an immense cultural scandal.”
Polanski is overdue for being extradited and prosecuted for evading his sentence and for the rapes as well. Wealthy criminals such as him should learn a lesson that law enforcement will not forget and making movies will not exonerate him from suffering the consequences of raping a then 13 year old. The fact that time has passed should not weaken the resolve to see him live behind bars; if anything he had a reprieve due solely to his further criminal behavior and he should have to face the music now. We should all boycott his films and those of any other filmmaker who supports him. This was no small crime he committed. Raping a 13 year old who trusted him in a professional capacity. He felt himself to be above the law then and apparently ever since then. He is now being told that he is not above the law and that is a very important message for him and all other rapists, no matter how impressive his other talents might be. I'm sure the girl he raped, now a grown woman,…I'm sure she had dreams that he foreclosed by his acts of violence. Our country must stand by children and not let men of influence get away with soul murder.
"Unlawful sex with a teenage girl"–it's called rape. Just use the word.
"Unlawful sex with a teenage girl"–it's called rape. Just use the word.
from the BBC: "The victim at the centre of the case, Samantha Geimer, has previously asked for the charges to be dropped, saying the continued publication of details "causes harm to me, my husband and children".
She has also called the court's insistence that Mr Polanski appear in person "a cruel joke". "
I am so glad someone finally had the balls to arrest this spineless rapist/child molester. I have no sympathy for him whatsoever.
the whole case seems a bit more complicated then the black and white moralities offered by some of the comments here would allow… see:
http://genestewart.blogspot.com/2008/06/roman-polanski-wanted-and-desired.html
yeah what a sick bastard. the fact that he was supported as an artist speaks for itself. this guy should die behind bars. i swear all of the news pages have thier comments turned off.
Pretty big scoop though…30 years in the making.
This is not just about the victim (asking for the case to be dropped). If it was only about her, the case could be dropped. But the law must be fulfilled in my opinion no matter what the victim thinks years after the crime.
I think the real question is WHY is this creep still allowed to make movies? Actors should refuse if he won't go back to the US and face his crime. Polanski, guilty or not, is a cowardly jackass who not only ran from the accusation, but didn't attend the parole hearings to contest the release of Manson & his followers, who murdered his pregnant wife!! I can't imagine any REAL man leaving the country with any of that going on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh2sWSVRrmo
Great artist. Deserved it.
I think it's good that there will be some closure to this case but I don't disagree with the way "the Playist" is reporting it. Simply because Polanski's case was that the girl was willing (yes it was wrong to have sex with an underage girl but it's a horse of a different color than rapping someone who is unwilling to have sex with you. It deserves some clarity as to which what kind of rape it was) With that said, I hope that he gets what he deserves and that's a fair and honest resolution to this whole mess. Also, I hope that after all this is said and done we still get a chance to see more Polanski films because no one can deny his talent.
Manson follower Susan Atkins who had killed Roman Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate died a couple of days ago and now this announced arrest of Roman Polanski.
What I can't understand is, how did Polanski manage to evade the law all these years with the so called technology of cameras and GPS, etc. There is just NO way that one can hide from the law with all of technology that is out there.
Something is just screwy here. I think the authorities DID know where he was hiding all these years. And one has to question as to why did they decide to arrest him NOW and not arrest him from years ago? Not to mention that this is going to cost taxpayers money for a trial that will drag on for years.
This is another example of how there is no such thing as "justice" in the justice system in the USA. Criminals go free while the innocent and victims get sent to prison.
I guess, it's not as easy as the law-and-order-crowd would like to make it. If I remember correctly, Polanski did serve something like 40 days for the charges back in 1977. He was then supposed to go free, but was fucked by the judge (whose prejudices against Polanski are well documented). Here's what Variety says: "Polansski was accused of raping Geimer while photographing her during a modeling session. Geimer said Polanski plied her with champagne and part of a Quaalude pill at Jack Nicholson's house while the actor was away. Polanski was allowed to plead guilty to one of six charges, unlawful sexual intercourse, and was sent to prison for 42 days of evaluation. Lawyers agreed that would be his full sentence, but the judge tried to renege on the plea bargain. Aware the judge would sentence him to more prison time and require his voluntary deportation, Polanski fled." So why don't you just keep the selfrighteuous holier than thou moralising for yourself and own up to the fact that Polanski did hand himself over to the authorities and was betrayed by them.
Well, I watched The View this am and they mentioned something important that Roman did admit he had sex with the 13 year old girl; however, he was not charged with rape as the girl might not have been forced? Not sure exactly what truly happened. Still, what he did was wrong, even if it was long ago, he still was made responsible for this…
I'm not going to defend Polanski's action's, but it's pretty clear from this thread and most threads on the matter that no one has a clue what they're talking about and most people know nothing about the case.
And here I thought there was no grey area when a guy drugs and rapes a 13 year old.
Morally, this story is yes, black and white. Legally, it's something entirely different and that's what I'm taking about. The man wasn't charged with rape. And he was sentenced and and served part of that sentence and then the judge changed his mind. The L.A. prosecutors know there are legally improprieties here that can legally get Polanski off and they wanted him to surrender himself so they could negotiate these terms, but when he refused they took they stepped up their game here, but don't think they didn't have other opportunities to do this.
They just didn't have much care to do so, but that documentary is damaging to their case. And they know the Polanski had a case when he brought this up last summer and wanted the case dismissed.
It has been more than 30 years, but it's clear they finally turned up the heat because he wouldn't play ball when they offered up a laurel and this pissed them off.
This just doesn't come out of the blue now like many people seems to presume.
He should be held accountable for his actions.
Ok, "cb on bonanzle", he was not "hiding" for 30 years. He was living freely and openly in countries that would not extradite him. And Anon 4:44AM, if you think 42 days of psychiatric evaluation is a just penalty, you may need some evaluation yourself. "Unlawful sex with a minor" was his plea bargain. His crime was raping a 13 yr old. The "documentary" is completely skewed in his favor and it wouldn't surprise me if he had it commissioned himself. The victim has repeatedly asked that the charges be dropped BECAUSE she doesn't want the horrible details brought up once again, which "causes harm to [her], [her] husband, and three children".