Prosecutors: Polanski must be in L.A. to seek sex case dismissal

A prosecutor filed papers today asking a judge to ignore Roman Polanski’s request for a dismissal of a  30-year-old child sex case until the Academy Award-winning director returns to the United States and submits to the California justice system.

Polanski, 75, has been a fugitive since 1978, when he fled the country before his sentencing on a charge of unlawful intercourse with a minor.

He acknowledged having intercourse with a 13-year-old aspiring model during a photo session at actor Jack Nicholson’s home. Polanski's attorneys filed a request last month for a dismissal of the charge “in the interests of justice,” based on what they described as egregious misconduct by a prosecutor and the judge handling the case.

In a 17-page filing, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. David Walgren wrote that “common sense” and a long-standing legal principle known as the “fugitive disentitlement doctrine” barred the court from hearing the matter until Polanski, who now lives in France, turns himself in.

A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 21, but the prosecutor wrote that the proceeding should be canceled. “Until such time that Mr. Polanski surrenders to the jurisdiction of this court, the defense motion should be dismissed and the matter should be taken off calendar,” Walgren wrote.

Polanski’s lawyers filed a motion Monday requesting that the case be handled by a judge from another jurisdiction because of what they said was bias by the Los Angeles court.

-- Harriet Ryan

Comments

[Zoloft]

Why a 75 year old pedophile like Polanski is even attempting this is beyond me. He's admitted to what he did and yet he remains a free man in most of the world. He won, sort of.
His penalty for his transgression is to never be allowed into our country to work or further poach upon our children. Which honestly seems a bit light to me, but so be it.
Perhaps he's trying to gain a bit of "respectability" in his old age.
As Noah Cross from Chinatown (a fictional pedophile) so eloquently put it:
"Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough."

Ironic and sad.

[Carol]

It's not just that he admits what he did, but he's unrepentant. He doesn't see that this was wrong.

I'm very glad that his victim moved on with her life, but that's not how our justice system works.

[Jay Reeder]

The invention of "childhood" led to all this foolishness. Up until the last century, people were assumed to be capable of consenting to sex once they hit puberty; witness all the state laws allowing young teens to get married. But now, we have ridiculous laws that put 17-year-olds in jail as rapists for having consensual sex with 16-year-olds, and make the 14-year-old who takes a naked picture of herself a "child pornographer".

Polanski may be sleazy, but his behavior shouldn't have been criminalized in the first place. Cops and prosecutors should be chasing violent criminals, not demonizing "dirty old men."

Of course, given the demagoguerie and publish prudishness that suffuse this country, the odds of our laws ever getting changed in this lifetime are exactly zero. Yet another reason to move to a country that gives more than lip service to the concept of "personal liberty", as Polanski did.

[Heart Swells]

Zoloft got it right, stay out of the U.S. Polanski and keep your "art" out of our theaters as well. What he desires is nothing more than more power and control over courts and our laws just as he exercised his same desire for control over that young girl so many years ago - with the help of drugs and alcohol.
Even if the kid was a punk and put up by her mother, Polanski remains the adult and should have exercised better judgement and control of himself.
Polanski wasn't smart then, probably hasn't learned much in his self imposed exile during these past decades.

[Not Xanax]

Hey Zoloft - increase your dosage.

Are you aware of ANY facts about the case?

The former DA and judge were themselves committing criminal actions.

[Julia]

Jay Reeder says: Polanski may be sleazy, but his behavior shouldn't have been criminalized in the first place. Cops and prosecutors should be chasing violent criminals, not demonizing "dirty old men."

I say, Jay your simplistic sociological and cultural analysis is pathetic. You also left out that this sleazy, scummy, pedophile did not have consensual sex with his victim, he raped her.

Please join Polanski in France as soon as possible.

[Stephen]

It should be noted that Mr. Polanski 's admitted rape was the anal rape of a 13 year old girl. Any rape of course is terrible, but this invasion of a young girl's most private area has no 'interest of justice' whatsoever in dropping the charges against him. He deserves 20 years with the general male population in prison.

[Captain Howdy]

As a father, Polanski would not be alive today to enjoy his freedom.

And to Jay Reeder,

I hope you never have to face a fact that a female relative of yours, no matter what the age, has been raped.
Secondly, the term "Consenting Adults" means just that, not Consentig Children. and if you think that the days of 12 year old girls being mature and married are the way to go, the Midle East has a place for you.
Third, seems to me that you have the same tendancies as Roman. Maybe you have done what he has and see nothning worng with it. Seems to me you should be moving before the law catches up with you.

[The Gunny]

Wow, only in Hollywierd is a pedophile a hero. Molest a 13 year old girl and its societies fault? Sick, but then that is what the movie industry has always been, a haven for those that hide their deviant behavior behind the curtain of art. Let’s get the guy a nice roommate at Pelican Bay State Prison.

[Zoloft]

Not Xanax,
Yes, I know the facts of the case.
I watched the same HBO special on him that you did.
I'm aware of the DA's actions and the Judge going back on his word.
That in NO WAY changes the fact that he drugged and raped a child of 13.
I'm sorry that his backroom deal between his expensive Beverly Hills Lawyer and the DA didn't work out. Boo Hoo.
If he had turned himself in and appealed the courts decision he would be a free man today. But he didn't. He ran, like the coward he is.
Maybe you feel because he survived the Holocaust and his wife was murdered he deserves some special "Get Out Of Jail If You Rape A Child Free" card. He does not. No one who abuses children deserves anything but serious jail time.

However...I loved Chinatown and would love to hear him give a lecture about it....from D block at Mule Creek State Prison.