Posted on 09/29/2009 7:59:10 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
LA officials made extradition requests from England to Thailand, it emerges, as director's lawyers file to get him released
Details of attempts to arrest Roman Polanski half a dozen times around the world since 1978 have emerged today as his lawyers filed a request for his immediate release on bail from a Swiss cell.
Authorities in Britain, Canada, France, Israel and Thailand had been asked to detain the film-maker over the years before he was held at Zurich airport on Saturday, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office said.
The release of a list of extradition attempts came in response to claims that the LA authorities had not bothered to pursue Mr Polanski after he fled the US in 1978 to escape sentencing for having unlawful sexual intercourse with an under-age girl.
Mr Polanski is said to have felt no qualms about visiting Zurich Film Festival to pick up a lifetime achievement award, partly because his lawyers believed that he was no longer actively being sought.
The LA District Attorney appears keen, however, to show that Mr Polanski's arrest was never put on the back-burner, despite an announcement from his victim that she did not believe he should be punished further for having sex with her when she was 13.
Mr Polanski's arrest on the three-decade-old affair continues to cause uproar in the film world.
Leading film directors including Woody Allen, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese and Pedro Almodovar signed a petition protesting against his detention, the French film industry association SACD said today.
The petition has so far been signed by 110 top industry figures, also including Michael Mann, Wim Wenders, Darren Aronofsky, Terry Gilliam, the Dardenne brothers, Jonathan Demme and the actresses Tilda Swinton, Monica Bellucci and Asia Argento.
"We demand the immediate release of Roman Polanski,"
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Polanski and his late wife, Sharon Tate
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.
Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
Affair?
How about calling it brutal rape?
Granted. House arrest.
Custody will be to a volunteer amongst you with a daughter under the age of 14.
and she was under 14. He’s a pedophile.
end times ping
/sarc
Greaaaaaaat. When Woody Allen says you haven't screwed enough little girls to get arrested, you know people have to listen.
Whoopi Goldberg said it wasn’t “rape rape”. Apparently you have to say it twice for it to really be a case of rape.
Since she’s liberal, and he’s a Hollywood idiot director, and Whoopi is a Hollywood idiot, it’s time to circle the wagons.
And to think that liberal feminists have told us for years how terrible rape is, and that date rape and other involuntary sex activity, is still rape, even if violent force wasn’t used. But I guess that’s only true if the perpetrator is a conservative/Republican/minister, or otherwise not a good liberal or Hollywood idiot. If the perpetrator belongs to a favored group, then all is forgiven.
Nobody has mentioned that he skipped bail and left the country after he pled guilty. He left the country before he was sentenced for his crime. He pled guilty in a plea bargain, however, it’s still a guilty plea. None of the liberals are addressing that. Instead they are using reasoning behind the sex activity that they would never let conservatives get away with.
Making a list, checking it twice. Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice. The petition will facilitate that.
By the look in the late Ms Tate’s eyes, I’d say Polanski drugged her, too!
What kind of prison is he being held in? Maybe he’ll learn a thing or two things about anal rape.
Just offer him a plea deal so he only has to serve one year.
What a fantastic deal, he would still have the prospect of getting out.
Just make it served in the right kind of prison, you know ?
Make a year to remember.
Justice would be served.
I wasn’t born till 79 and have never heard of this man or what he did. can some1 fill me in?
30 years and can’t catch one man? How do they think they can nab terrorists?
IN 1977, he was 44, told a 13-year old girl's mother that he wanted to take photos of her for the French edition of Vogue. Allegedly told the mother she couldn't be there and that the girl couldn't bring a friend.
Took topless photos of her (this was before current child pornography laws) and at some point gave her champagne and a qualuude or two. Talked her into getting naked, took more photos, got her into the hot tub and got frisky with his hands. She said "no", went into the house to get her clothes. Asked to go home. He refused. He forced oral sex on her as she said "no."
He raped her vaginally as she said "no."
He raped her anally as she said "no."
He then raped her vaginally again as she said "no," because the whole "oral, vaginal, anal" bit just hadn't been enough. (Just going by her Grand Jury testimony, folks).
He was arrested. His lawyers argued that he was emotionally distraught by death of his wife to Manson family and death of family members in WWII Concentration Camps. Struck a tentative plea bargain, pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor, and agreed to undergo about 45 days of psychiatric evaluation -- and psychiatrists were going to say he was unlikely to be a threat to anyone else.
He thought his sentence would be time served in psych evaluation under plea bargain but got wind that Judge was not going to accept 45 days of pscyh evaluation as punishment and was going to send him to prison.
He fled the country and went to France. France wouldn't extradite him to U.S. Who can blame them? Why should a famous artiste have to spend more than 45 days in confinement for raping a 13-year old American girl?
Artsy types thought it was horrific that he couldn't return to the U.S. to receive his Oscar for The Pianist in person.
Was he a continued threat to young girls? Well, by 1979, he was living in France with the 15-year old star, Nastassja Kinski.
I may have a few facts slightly askew, but not far.
Fact is, we're somehow supposed to forget/forgive him for vaginally and anally raping a 13-year old girl because (a) he's a really good director, (b) he's an artiste, (c) he's been punished by having to live in France as a French millionaire for 30 years, and (d) he couldn't show up in Hollywood to pick up an Oscar in person.
Oh, and because the girl he raped doesn't want the whole thing dredged up again.
Oh and oh, because Whoopi Goldberg says this wasn't "rape-rape", apparently because he pled guilty only to unlawful sex with an underage girl. Using alcohol and drugs to help you orally, vaginally, and anally rape a 13-year old while she said "no" isn't 'rape-rape', at least not if you're a famous Hollywood director.
His defenders say "legal shennigans." Yeah, right. He pled guilty to the sex, people, to keep from having to go to trial on the whole set of charges. His defenders say "Los Angeles has only been after him for a couple of years." Bull. L.A. has been after him since 1978 and has tried to have him apprehended on many occasions when he's made his way through countries with whom the U.S. has extradition agreements.
When we would hear of him going through an airport in another country where we had extradition agreements, we never got help.
Polanski had to stay away from the U.K. -- may have been able to sneak in or out a few times, but knew that the U.K. was one country likely to ship him back to the U.S.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.