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This is the latest in a long series of efforts by Roman Polanski and friends to help the Oscar-winning director return to this country. The AP reports that lawyers for Polanski, who's been a fugitive in France for the past 30 years, filed a request today to dismiss the notorious sex case involving an underage girl because of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct. The motion alleges that a documentary about Polanski released earlier this year revealed "a pattern of misconduct and improper communications" between the DA's office and the judge in Polanski's case. It was back in 1978 that Polanski skipped sentencing and fled the United States after pleading guilty to having sex with the 13-year-old who has since forgiven him. He was initially indicted on six felony counts and faced up to life in prison. Instead, he pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. Five other counts were dismissed. When he left the country, the judge issued a warrant for his arrest that is still in effect. Polanski won the Bes Director Oscar for 2002's The Pianist.
Polanski Files To Dismiss Old Sex Charge
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I don’t want that scumbag anywhere near my country!
How ridiculous is it for someone to plead guilty and flee before sentencing and then rely on a documentary to exonerate him?
Give me a break!
Ask Bush for a pardon…that’s all the advice I have.
Ummm, no thanks Roman. Lets forget this Star power trip pass LA usually gives its own. Sex wasn’t consensual if the thirteen year old was given drugs and drinks.
Besides his movies have gone downhill to borderline criminal soooo, no thanks. Stay in France.
If he admitted guilt then any prosecutorial misconduct becomes irrelevant. it is also irrelevant that the then 13 year old girl upon whom he committed statutory rape has now forgiven him. the people (i.e. the city of los angeles in the form of the prosecutor’s office), has not forgiven him and should not until he either serves his sentence or he stands trial for the remaining five counts. the passage of time, his talent and even his having received a best director academy award do not absolve him. although the case could certainly be made that thirty years living among the french should be considered time served…
The 13-year-old has “since forgiven him?” Please.
He took advantage of a child, and yes, I saw the documentary. It didn’t change my thoughts about the situation at *all*.
He would still be facing charges for skipping the country, right? It’s disgusting the way Polanski has evaded justice for decades without anyone in Hollywood batting an eyelash.
Man I hope this douche tries to sneak in the country…what a spineless coward don’t do the disgraceful crime if you’re scared of LA jails, puss.
Sounds like someone is sick of France.
13 years old. Picture it. I hope justice prevails. Pedophiles who make great films are still pretty much pedophiles. Even inmates don’t tolerate them. Hollywood? Well that’s a step down, so we’ll see.
Polanski is a cinematic genius. He’s a great artist. But he’s also pretty clearly a sick man, a damaged person, with a disturbing pattern of behavior. That’s not entirely his fault, a childhood during the Holocaust would destroy a lesser person. But as an adult, Polanski needs to do some real work with a therapist or psychiatrist to keep from himself from damaging others.
If that work hasn’t been done, he’s still a dangerous person.
Once a pedophile, always a pedophile. Sorry.
It’s the West and society at large that makes pedophilia into a crime.
I understand that the drugging part is highly problematic but I believe that it has been long enough for him to be ‘cured’ if you want to call it that.
Also, even the woman would most likely not want to go ahead with any charges at this point seeing as she has forgiven him and it has been so long.
There are bigger problems out there today.
Oh please, the holocaust? stop excusing his bad behavior and insulting the integrity of other survivors in the process!
He knew what he was doing was wrong at the time. He is a sick sob who hurt a little girl, and pedophiles never stop at one person. Just because he has only been prosecuted for one rape victim doesn’t mean there aren’t anymore out there.
One less pedo in America is good for the kids’ sakes. Let him continue to molest the ones in France. They bought him – they keep him, NO RETURNS!
As a victim of rape @ 11, I truly hope this man never sets foot in this country again. He doesn’t have the right, no matter how much he or anyone on his behalf paid his victim.
“It’s the West and society at large that makes pedophilia into a crime.
I understand that the drugging part is highly problematic but I believe that it has been long enough for him to be ‘cured’ if you want to call it that.
Also, even the woman would most likely not want to go ahead with any charges at this point seeing as she has forgiven him and it has been so long.
There are bigger problems out there today.”
Comment by KT — December 2, 2008 @ 9:43 pm
KT, the “bigger problems out there” are the evil, cowardly criminals like you who don’t think pedophilia is a crime. When someone rapes your child, I hope you’re forced to watch.
The man raped a child. Period. End of story.
As if I didn’t despise Hollywood enough already. They gave this sick asshole a standing ovation when he won the Oscar for The Pianist. Meanwhile Elia Kazan who spoke out against Communism and did what he knew in his heart to be the right thing got booed and people sitting on their hands. Once a pedophile, always a pedophile. That never goes away. It is not a simple virus or bacteria that can be cured through pills and therapy.
Almost as sickening as a paedophile are the people who willingly allow themselves to be entertained by them, knowing what they do for kicks.
Instead of apologizing and admiting to his mistakes, he wants to us to forget his crime and dismiss all the charges?
What does he take us for? Fools?
And to think the stupid Oscarians gave him an Oscar for his very stupid movie? That is why the Oscar is a joke.
Only the French will accept such acts since they celebrated sex so much more and care less whether one has sex with a minor or with a donkey.
We don’t want him here at all and not because we think our backyard are not with people of such despicable behaviour. We can do with one less.
He plead guilty, then fled. What am I missing? If Polanski though that the charges were bogus, why did he plead guilty? Why did he flee?
We are supposed to forgive this rat/midget pervert because some souless advocate for child rape made a documentary? This represents the current hollywood crowd mentality at it’s worst! This is why a lot of Americans do not go to most of the movies that are
presented. The silence of the Hollywood crowd in castigating this little perve is deafening!!
KT–
Hey that’s great! Let’s just let all men be allowed to bang 13 year-olds! Or do you have a thing for 7 year-olds?
Hopefully you don’t live anywhere near my neighborhood.
Roman Polanski is a kind, thoughtful, engaged and intelligent human being. In Europe, being 13 isn’t so young — Europeans are different. I am not saying it was right or wrong, but for those that don’t know Roman, throwing these ugly comments is only a comment on our society. He’s a great, caring and loving person. And, the Holocaust could very well be a reason for someone to have late blooming experiences — he lost 8 years of his life. He is NOT a scumbag!
So, drugging a 13-year old is ‘highly problematic’? Your moral compass must be dizzy from spinning so uncontrollably.
Is he talented? Sure. Did he commit a crime? Yes. His talent does not excuse him for the crime, and he needs to pay the penalty for the crime he admitted to committing.
You know, Charlie Manson played the guitar and wrote some songs and he wants out of jail. As an artist, Roman should appreciate Manson’s request. And at least Charlie did his time…
To paraphrase Walter Sobchak in Lebowski — “He’s a Pedarest Dude. 13 year-olds.”
I honestly don’t understand either the hate-cult or the defense-cult of Roman Polanski. Reading comments here and elsewhere, you’d think he’d murdered dozens of little children, or he’s a God-like maestro who may be excused on any indiscretion.
Seriously. He’s a human being. He’s been screwed over many times in his life (Holocaust death camps, being tortured by a serial killer, then having his wife tortured to death by a different serial killer). But he’s also screwed others’ lives over, most notably with this underage model. Nor is he that great of a director: Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby are some of the greatest movies ever, but he’s also turned out a lot of garbage.
I know everyone wants to be a villager to Frankenstein’s monster, but the dude hasn’t exactly killed anybody, nor does he have a rap sheet for raping 6-year olds. He’s just a screwed up human. His screwed up aspect happens to be more poignant and more public than everyone else’s.
13 years old, people. Thirteen! Take a look at your daughters, or some young girl that’s 13 years old. That’s what he did. Sure, it was 30 years ago, the “girl” is now well into her prime, and has allegedly forgiven him. It was the ’70s, it was LA…so what? Thirteen! And where’s the apology? Where’s the Mea Culpa? Nowhere. Now he’s just grousing about prosecutorial misconduct? Uhmmmm, Roman? Rape? Drugged 13 year old girl? You REALLY want to bring up the subject of misconduct? As if 30 years exile in France has been ANY kind of punishment for this crime? Even after OJ, Blake, Spector, etc. c’mon LA. Please let’s not let this guy think he can slink back into the country. She was thirteen!
Hey Sally, we don’t need to know how warm and caring a human being Roman is. I wonder how caring he would have been if someone had drugged and raped his daughter when she was 13. I suspect he wouldn’t have been quite so caring then. Or perhaps he raped her himself..peds have a tendency to be repeat offenders after all. I hope he rots in hell — oh yeah he lives in France so he’s already there.
All I am saying is that in general pedophilia has been pathologized over the last centuries when in the past it has been normal for older individuals to have relationships with younger people – i.e. Greece etc. Contrary to popular belief, I believe that children have a sexuality when parents pretend they don’t. After puberty they can make their own sexual decisions. But I won’t go into a debate about age of consent etc.
As noted above, it is probably slightly different in Europe but it has been extremely scandalized in North America.
In this case, as I articulated, the fact that drugs were involved makes it a bigger problem, and criminal.
P.S. I won’t return those sick and hateful things that were being said because of a difference in opinion.
Dear Mr. Polanski,
While I have seen several of your films, and they are quite good, the fact remains you are a worthless kidfucker.
Burn in Hell.
Also, for the purpose of taking part in a discussion between intelligent people, make sure you understand that ‘rape’ and ‘pedophilia’ are not synonymous and in fact are mutually exclusive.
Sally writes, “Roman Polanski is a kind, thoughtful, engaged and intelligent human being. In Europe, being 13 isn’t so young — Europeans are different. I am not saying it was right or wrong, but for those that don’t know Roman, throwing these ugly comments is only a comment on our society. He’s a great, caring and loving person. And, the Holocaust could very well be a reason for someone to have late blooming experiences — he lost 8 years of his life. He is NOT a scumbag!”
****
You make it very clear because “Europeans are different” you support Mr. Polanski– since 13 years old apparently isn’t all that young in Europe to be drugged and raped. But the end of your comment is dubious. It’s not quite clear if your understanding of this difference also leads you to support the Holocaust.
the issue is the trial, people. it was conducted in a grossly unethical manner subject to the personal whims of some chest-thumping, self-glorifying judge. you can choose to dislike Polanski for his crimes (I do) but that doesn’t mean the standards of the American justice system can be discarded at will. If Americans really had so little tolerance for sex with 13-year olds perhaps we should have ensured that no laws were broken or bent in the quest to punish Polanski.
The only sensible way to rectify this is if there were some way to dismiss the old case and re-charge him.
And I thought witch hunts were part of our past. Did anyone even take the girl’s point of view into consideration? The whole scenario seemed pretty consensual to me, despite the drug part.
This isn’t about rape and loss of innocence. This is about power. The power of posession that parents fear losing. People are outraged not for the act itself, but for the fact that it was a 13 year old who decided to engage in sexual activity, defying the whole concept of parental authority. It’s not as if Polanski dragged her from a parent’s hands. She went along with it.
Besides, rape involves violence. There was none of it in this case.
Using qualudes and alcohol to drug a 13 yr old in order to have sex is rape whether in europe or not. what a loser, if he needs to drug someone in order to have sex. rape in any form is despicable!
“We are supposed to forgive this rat/midget pervert…”
Choose your words more carefully, Panama. Your statement is an insult to any small person.
What a life – from losing his mother and sister in concentration camps to losing his wife Sharon Tate in the gruesome Manson murders to drugging and sodomizing a minor…just goes to show violence begets violence. And rape is rape.
In a civilized society, we set standards for behavior so that life remains, well, civil. Sure, sex with 13-year-olds might have made sense in Greece a thousand years ago, or even in an Amazonian village in hunter-gatherer societies today. But in a technological society where people live into their 80s and beyond.. it just doesn’t make sense.
Roman Polanski engaged in behavior that this society considers criminal, then skipped the country to avoid paying for that crime. With that choice, he denied himself the benefits of living in the society which deemed his actions a crime. I agree, if he wants a retrial, he possibly has grounds for one. But he needs to work within the system.
Which, clearly, he does not want to do.
I pity the guy, in the sense that he’s clearly got a lot of demons. Even if he’s “nice”.
actually KT, rape and pedophellia are not mutually exclusive if the impulse to engage in sex with a minor is acted upon.
a minor in this case cannot consent to sexual relations with an adult and therefore, because consent cannot be given, any sexual relations with a minor does in fact constitute rape.
i suspect that you are justifying your position due to your own sexual proclivities or perhaps your own illegal activities. either way you are a troubled person.
This is a side note about a guilty plea versus a guilty finding, not a comment on Polanski: in America a guilty plea doesn’t always mean you did it, only that you’ve weighed the cost of mounting a defense, how backed up the courts are, and how risky it is to trust the justice system, so you’ve chosen a plea bargain. Polanski has a higher profile than most, but spend a day in court some time and you’ll be astonished at how pragmatic the process is (especially if you’re poor).
We should let him back into the US and then arrest him – there’s no law that says Cops and Prosecutors can’t lie to pedophiles-rapists.
So many of you posters sure have strong opinions about something you obviously know nothing about. Watch the documentary and you’ll see. The film makes no excuses for Polanski’s behavior, which, in the eyes of many who see it, will continue to remain deplorable.
However, Polanski never got a fair trial. He was planning to plead not guilty, but the judge offered him a plea bargain on reduced charges that had him go to prison for a period of time for psychological observation. He did serve that time, and only fled the country when he realized the judge was going to revoke the deal he made (in the presence of both the prosecuting and defense attorneys) and sentence Polanski to a much longer period of time than initially agreed upon.
Polanski was never convicted of, nor did he plead guilty to, drugging and raping the girl. Had he ever gone before a jury, he might very well have been cleared of those charges. People should not automatically assume that just because Polanski pled guilty to a lesser charge that he was necessarily guilty of all of the more serious charges initally brought against him and later dropped.
And the legal system should not be allowed to manipulate confessions out of people by promising sentences they have no intention of delivering.
Sad to read these comments here. This is the problem with most people. They don’t think that there is anything wrong with raping children. They don’t think 13 is young. It is really sad.
The fact is Roman Polanski is a cowardly pedophile. Like any criminal – he commit the crime continuously until getting caught. Instead he jumped bail and a confessed pedophile has been left loose on the public. And people think that his prominence in society excuses violent acts – it is truly more sad than anything else. This is the reason why most children find it hard to speak up against their abusers.
I could cry over this.
Please, we cannot let Roman Polanski back to work with children in the entertainment industry.
Hollywood has a HUGE problem with pedophilia. So much so that SAG/AFTRA (yes, they actually did something together) did an entire educational workshop on the subject.
Unlike other areas where adults have personal contact with children (elementary schools, boy scouts, baseball) there is no fingerprint requirement, or law against sex offenders working with child actors. Yep, you heard that right…the director, manager or publicist could be a convicted child abuser and they could run out and make a film in Hollywood with child actors. Perfectly legal. Child actors are defenseless.
Pedophiles migrate to the entertainment industry because they can. It is a “target rich community”. Lots of children, little oversight, and a very liberal work environment. Pedophiles are not stupid…they go where they can be uh, creative and have access to the things they want.
There have been more than a few arrests in recent years. Managers, Publicists, Directors, etc. The use of date-rape drugs on children they are have relationships with (ie. not strangers) is VERY VERY common. It is also very common for the pedophile to claim the child was a willing participant and that “in Europe, people are more advanced in their thinking”.
Example: Studio Teacher Don Munro. This peachy guy abused more little boys while he was awaiting trial! Recently more victims have come forward, linking the activity to the set:
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=de58680e-59c1-41cd-9338-77d078ad083f&k=6230
Example: Josh Werkmann, the manager of Disney’s Sprouse twins. On set every day with children (yes, that is odd behavior for a talent manager). He was convicted of child molestation of a teen boy last August. His deal is almost identical to the Polanski story, minus the running to another country. Instead, he is right back in Hollywood, working in the industry, using a new name here and there. He is still telling a story about how it was all a horrible misunderstanding.
It’s time for the industry to have a zero tolerance black-balling of CRIMINALS who work with children.
How far does this have to go before the industry realizes how bad it is?
If you want to analyze the collapse of ICM, look no further then the act that ICM’s chairman, Jeff Berg, is and has been for years the grinning public mouthpiece and apologist for this child rapist.
Yes, even Charles Manson may deserve an attorney , but where is it written that someone who drugs and sodomizes
a thirteen year old girl, and then flees justice, deserves an agent ?
What responsible artist would ever want to be represented by ICM, when there is clearly nothing they won’t stoop to do to make themselves a dollar ?
the fact that so many commenters are willing to damn Polanski in a heated and insulting way speaks volumes to the problem of ill-informed, self-satisfying hotheads who mar open discussion of very tough issues like statutory rape. no one has made mention of the girl’s mother trying to launch her acting career on Polanski’s back; she left her daughter unsupervised for a photo shoot which all agreed would be racy. And while consentual sex with a minor is statutory rape, most commenters shrilly put forth the image of Polanski brutalizing a “drugged” and comatose 13 year old, a view with no basis in fact. Polanski is not ‘right’ but again the trial was a circus. and @ Advocate: that there’ve been sexual predators in the entertainment industry reflects not one iota on the Polanski case. How irresponsible can you get?
HE MOLESTED A CHILD IN A FIT.
RAN FROM JUSTICE IN A SNIT.
NOW THE FRENCH REPROBATE,
WANTS BACK IN THE STATES,
NO WAY, YOU SICK PIECE OF SHIT!
According the the documentary, this man drugged, then sodomized that 13 year old girl. Yes, he ass-raped a drugged out child.
For all those who think he should be forgiven, you go out and ass rape someone’s daughter and see what the justice system does to you.
This is why people continue to hate Hollywood. A man screws his daughter (Woody Allen) and actors line up to work with him. A man ass rapes a child and we give him an Oscar. This is who he beat in 2003:
“Chicago” – Rob Marshall
“Gangs of New York” – Martin Scorsese
“The Hours” – Stephen Daldry
“Talk to Her” – Pedro Almodovar
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
A convicted pedophile rapist over this kind of talent? And for a movie whose themes have been done to death. What does that say to the world about the people running our business?
Advocate nailed it. If you want to know why so many former child stars end up addicted, out of control and/or dead, just look at how many pedophiles operate freely in Hollywood. Something need to be done about the sickness of the system. Putting a stop to the bizarre idolization of LA’s most infamous pedophile and keeping him out of the country is only a start.
Read the victim’s Grand Jury testamony if you think he didn’t do anything “that bad.” This is why statutory rape laws exist.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.html
The teenager’s troubling–and contemporaneous–account of her abuse at Polanski’s hands begins with her posing twice for topless photos that the director said were for French Vogue. The girl then told prosecutors how Polanski directed her to, “Take off your underwear” and enter the Jacuzzi, where he photographed her naked. Soon, the director, who was then 43, joined her in the hot tub. He also wasn’t wearing any clothes and, according to Gailey’s testimony, wrapped his hands around the child’s waist.
The girl testified that she left the Jacuzzi and entered a bedroom in Nicholson’s home, where Polanski sat down beside her and kissed the teen, despite her demands that he “keep away.” According to Gailey, Polanski then performed a sex act on her and later “started to have intercourse with me.” At one point, according to Gailey’s testimony, Polanski asked the 13-year-old if she was “on the pill,” and “When did you last have your period?” Polanski then asked her, Gailey recalled, “Would you want me to go in through your back?” before he “put his penis in my butt.” Asked why she did not more forcefully resist Polanski, the teenager told Deputy D.A. Roger Gunson, “Because I was afraid of him.”
Bravo Anso!
I agree that “anso” gets four stars for his post.
This poet person is corny but he/she’s a hoot!
And oh yeah, down with the sodomite Polanski.
If Polanski had raped a boy, he wouldn’t have an Oscar and none of you mental mites would be defending him and you know it.
This all really about how we hate women in the U.S. We’re no better than the Taliban in this country. Only we cut off a woman’s rights rather than her sex organs and we stone them with negative, biased media coverage instead on rocks.
To every Polanski defender I hear Roman’s available to babysit your ten year old daughter or niece.
Any takers?
hello all.
just wanted to say that I’m French… and not proud of it.him being a refugee in my country!
he’s a sick bastard whose only place is in jail, wherever it is!