Roman Polanski seeks dismissal of charges

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snip from angelmom
Polanski at the time had pleaded guilty to 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.

On the day of his sentencing in 1978, aware the judge would sentence him to more prison time and require his voluntary deportation, Polanski fled to France.
snip

I think that there is a certain bias to the sentence I bolded. FWIW, judges can overturn sentencing recommendations on occasionif I understand the law correctly-here in MA we had a judge virtually overturn a second degree murder verdict and give the nanny who was found guilty time served. Instead of 25 years.

The fact of his guilt is not in play, it is the sentence I believe. So what is an adequate sentence for him? Time served and 30 years on the run, clearly not suffering....at least from not residing in the US.

I think he is a tragic figure, but I do not believe that time in the camps caused him to rape a child. Regardless of what the decade was when this happened, it was not acceptable practice to peddle your child to the Hollywood figure who was most likely to give you a contract, even if there were people who did it. Doesn't play well in middle America ever. JMO.
 
I didn't think of this, but just looked it up. He was 44 years old when he raped that 13-year-old. 44!! Not a young man of say 25 even who might even see the girl as a peer. Not that I'm saying that's right, but at his age then it's even worse. He could not possibly see her as even remotely a peer. I'm about his age and when I recently saw some girls from the local girls' school, which is near an elementary school, I wondered why the elementary school girls were out walking around alone. Then I realized that they are high school girls. No one that age could possibly see a girl that young as an adult or peer.
 
impatientredhead said:
If you watch the documentary the reason he fled was because of the outrageous conduct that was going on in the case and the judge that was a complete media *advertiser censored*.

It is reported that he only had to do 90 days in mental hospital and fled at 45, but at the end of that 90 eval while the agreement among all parties was that he would be released the judge was planning to send him to prison. If you see the documentary the victim, the prosecutor and the defense all discuss how out of control the situation was and how much it was being manipulated.

My personal opinion is that he did not get a fair trial and has paid quite the price for his actions that night. And I felt very differently before the doc. All parties saying the same thing, including the prosecutor who filed a complaint against the judge, was very impactful. If his victim felt differently about the situation I might as well, but even she said the conduct of the judge was damaging to her and unfair to him.

The short headline is that he raped a girl and got 90 days, fled and now wants charges dropped, what an Ahole. The other story is long, convulted, and full of legalese and judicial misconduct explained by players no one cares about and can't be explained in a 40 second sound bite. moo
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This is not quite accurate. He had pled guilty to a lesser charge of sex with a child, in order to get a minimal sentance. The DA had agreed to it. He had been ordered to 45 days of psych evaluation prior to sentancing. The plea agreement would have meant that that would be it.

However in the US any plea agreement is ultimately subject to the judge agreeing with and following the DA's recomendations. Remember Mr. Polanski did not simply have sex with a minor. He drugged and forceably raped a 13 year old girl while she pleaded no. It's understandable that the judge sort of balked at 45 days in a psych facility on this plea (the judge when accepting a plea looks at the crime, not the admission). Word got out that the judge was not going to go for it, realizing he would be facing real jail time Polanski beat feet.

While a diferent LA judge did agree that with the movie that there were some discrepancies in the judicial handling of Polanski's case, and that it should be re-examined by a court, he refussed Polanski's dismissal of charges request stating that the director would have to be present himself in the courtroom to entertain any such actions. In other words Polanski could have returned willingly to the court at that time (last year I think) and gotten a fair hearing while subject to US justice. He once again chose not to.

Sorry I understand all that he went through in his life, but what he did to that young girl was unconscionable. I find it absolutely unsupportable that major worls politicians and leaders are getting on the stump in support of his admitted and well documented child rape. My views concerning the Hollywood types that keep singing his praises cannot be voiced hear because of the tos.
 
angelmom said:
I wouldn't be surprised if the civil settlement included an agreement that she would not pursue any other charges, plus a confidentiality clause.
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I believe you are correct as anytime shes appeared she has her lawyer right by her side.......She also seems like a very strong women & very sincere in not wanting this to be pursued.
 
Miss_Scarlett said:
The victim does not get to decide about pressing charges in a criminal case. Rape is a crime against the State. Even if they had to retry him, which I'm not sure about, I think they could still get a guilty verdict even without her on the stand. I'm not sure if this was addressed much in this thread, but his fleeing is also a crime.

I do think that it's okay to spend that money to get him here and in jail. That sends a powerful message to people in his position that no matter what you can not get away with unlawful sex with a minor. I think that's an important message.
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BBM...no the victim doesn't get to decide; however, in real life if the victim is uncooperative and declines to testify (which she is allowed to do...what prosecutor would force her? No rape victim would ever come forward again!) and there is no physical evidence or witness, how would they convict him?

believe09 said:
The fact of his guilt is not in play, it is the sentence I believe. So what is an adequate sentence for him? Time served and 30 years on the run, clearly not suffering....at least from not residing in the US.
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Yes, the fact of his guilt is in play. If the judge did not accept the plea agreement, then they have to go back to square one and start over. No plea, and I don't even think they can use the almost plea deal against him. So no confession (although the world knows he confessed, so how he's supposed to get a fair trial I don't know). There is no way a jury will find him guilty of the sex. They might find him guilty of running, but I think the prosecution runs a serious risk of jury nullification and losing it all because he looks like he's on a witchhunt after the jury hears about the first judge.

Like I said, I don't think he's innocent, but I do think he has every chance legally of beating it. And while it might send a message to drag him back and make him face it, it might send a worse message when he gets away and is then free to live and work in the US again.
 
Take away his celebrity status and I ponder how people would then look at him.
 
Dave AHFB said:
He plead guilty. In other words, he has already been convicted.
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He not only pled guilty, he paid a sum of money to the victim. Guilty as charged. If he were a poor Moe on the streets, he would still be in prison. He doesn't get a pass in my book just because he is well known and rich. It appears money can pay off anything now days.
 
lonetraveler said:
He not only pled guilty, he paid a sum of money to the victim. Guilty as charged. If he were a poor Moe on the streets, he would still be in prison. He doesn't get a pass in my book just because he is well known and rich. It appears money can pay off anything now days.
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Another Michael Jackson!!!
:snooty:
 
He did the crime, he should do the time..........better late than ever.
Double his time, IMO
 
Big difference Linask-Michael never pled guilty..you always seem to forget that.
 
It's never ok to drug and rape a 13 year old girl (I read her story a couple of years ago) I don't care that she had dabbled in drugs, It's not ok to rape her. I don't care that it was Hollywood in the 70s, rape is not ok. He went through the holocaust, but rape is not ok. There is never an excuse for rape. I wish everyone would understand that but I hear a lot of people excusing his behavior. By the way, you think she was the only one he did that to? Check it out.

An adult who rapes a child should go to prison. Period.
 
angelmom said:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-09-27-polanski_N.htm


"This is a legal story," Balmer told The AP. "There is no room for political pressure."

Authorities in Los Angeles consider Polanski a "convicted felon and fugitive."

Polanski at the time had pleaded guilty to 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.

On the day of his sentencing in 1978, aware the judge would sentence him to more prison time and require his voluntary deportation, Polanski fled to France.

Yes, he plead guilty to having sex with her, but it was a different charge than current ones like child molestation, rape of a child under 14, etc. that would have been filed today. Unlawful sexual intercourse could probably have covered a lot of things 30 years ago, including adultery and gay sex. I don't think it was a "100 years" thing. (hell, most murderers don't even get 100 years!) He did not plead to drug related charges.

Since the plea deal was not followed, I think the whole guilt/innocence goes back to the beginning. It is null and void. And that is where I think this is a big waste, because they will never be able to find him guilty with no evidence and a reluctant victim. I wouldn't be surprised if the civil settlement included an agreement that she would not pursue any other charges, plus a confidentiality clause.
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I tend to agree with this statement. I am not sure of all the legalize but it sounds like it may be what may occur.


Gozgals
 
What Roman did back in the '70's was criminal and disgusting, no doubt about it. I also have no doubts that the original pre-trial and the shenanigans surrounding it were criminal. If you look at the fact that Roman ESCAPED from a Nazi concentration camp wherein one (or both) of his parents were literally turned to ashes, would you be SHOCKED that he fled the U.S. when it looked like the court system was not being lawful? I mean, really. He was a child in a concentration camp! Who I have no doubt had some serious arrested development issues for decades. What he did was criminal but there were some mitigating circumstances here.

[And further to note, it is not like he's a pedophile. He's been married to women before and after this episode.]

See the HBO special if you have not because it may change your mind a bit about the misconduct and the reason why he fled.
 
Gracenote said:
It's never ok to drug and rape a 13 year old girl (I read her story a couple of years ago) I don't care that she had dabbled in drugs, It's not ok to rape her. I don't care that it was Hollywood in the 70s, rape is not ok. He went through the holocaust, but rape is not ok. There is never an excuse for rape. I wish everyone would understand that but I hear a lot of people excusing his behavior. By the way, you think she was the only one he did that to? Check it out.

An adult who rapes a child should go to prison. Period.
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Well I hope you aren't including me in this. I don't think anyone here is excusing what he did. We are - well, at least I am - purely talking about the legal issue and what might happen to him now. What should be and what is are two entirely different things.
 
Theonly1 said:
What Roman did back in the '70's was criminal and disgusting, no doubt about it. I also have no doubts that the original pre-trial and the shenanigans surrounding it were criminal. If you look at the fact that Roman ESCAPED from a Nazi concentration camp wherein one (or both) of his parents were literally turned to ashes, would you be SHOCKED that he fled the U.S. when it looked like the court system was not being lawful? I mean, really. He was a child in a concentration camp! Who I have no doubt had some serious arrested development issues for decades. What he did was criminal but there were some mitigating circumstances here.

[And further to note, it is not like he's a pedophile. He's been married to women before and after this episode.]

See the HBO special if you have not because it may change your mind a bit about the misconduct and the reason why he fled.
Click to expand...

I get what you are saying-but the fact is he pled guilty. I can think of thousands of cases where criminals take an alford plea-he did not, he pled guilty. Yup, it sucks that he felt the law was going to reneg and he would have to serve jail time rather than psychiatric time. He had the means to flee the country and live his life well. So he did. And almost unique to his profession, he had the means to continue to create and work in his medium.

But it is time for this to play out-Whitey Bulger has been on the run forever-should he be given a pass for his crimes because of the length of time and the expense involved? Wonder how Eli Wiesel or the Nazi Hunters of the Simon Wiesenthal Center might view both the excuses being set forth and the idea that there are mitigating circumstances to crimes? Roman has had his life and his fun-he is not proving any point by staying out of the reach of the justice system in my mind. He has sufficient protection (money) which will likely give him the outcome he is looking for, more is the pity. I do not know what I think is a fair solution-but it is time for him to face this. JMO
 
Theonly1 said:
What Roman did back in the '70's was criminal and disgusting, no doubt about it. I also have no doubts that the original pre-trial and the shenanigans surrounding it were criminal. If you look at the fact that Roman ESCAPED from a Nazi concentration camp wherein one (or both) of his parents were literally turned to ashes, would you be SHOCKED that he fled the U.S. when it looked like the court system was not being lawful? I mean, really. He was a child in a concentration camp! Who I have no doubt had some serious arrested development issues for decades. What he did was criminal but there were some mitigating circumstances here.

[And further to note, it is not like he's a pedophile. He's been married to women before and after this episode.]

See the HBO special if you have not because it may change your mind a bit about the misconduct and the reason why he fled.
Click to expand...


Okay, you do know that pedophiles are married men all the time, right? In fact, they often seek out single women with young children for the very reason that they want an easy victim.

I would cut him some slack on fleeing a little bit because of his concentration camp experience. I was saying this to my husband last night. I did watch that film when it was on TV. We have a neighbor who is a survivor of Auschwitz, and I know he has certain fears to this day stemming from that horror. So, I can understand why someone who had gone through that as a child could genuinely panic thinking that they would be imprisoned in a small cell. I'd cut him some slack on that in sentencing regarding the fleeing. Not the rape, though.

As far as the victim not testifying, we don't know that she won't if they need her, even though she no longer wants to. Also, her statement is probably enough along with his prior confession.
 
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