Roman Polanski depressed, unsettled in Zurich jail, lawyer says

Roman Polanski is depressed and in an "unsettled state of mind" as he begins his third week in a Zurich jail, his attorney told two Swiss newspapers.

Attorney Herve Temime has visited Polanski in jail, where he faces extradition to Los Angeles for sentencing after having pleaded guilty three decades ago to sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.

"I found him to be tired and depressed," Temime told the Sonntag newspaper.

He was quoted in the newspaper NZZ as saying Polanski "seemed very dejected when I visited him."

Swiss authorities last week rejected Polanski's request to be released from jail. The director's representatives have said they plan to fight the efforts of L.A. prosecutors to bring the director back to California.

A team of American attorneys for Polanski met with a deputy assistant attorney general and other Justice Department officials Oct. 2 and presented them with arguments against returning the director to the U.S. to face sentencing on a statutory rape charge, according to a letter included in an appellate court filing Wednesday.

Polanski, 76, was arrested Sept. 26 in Zurich. He fled the U.S. on the eve of his 1978 sentencing for unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, a 13-year-old girl who told police he raped and sodomized her during a photo shoot.

-- Shelby Grad

Comments

[Rob]

He feels "dejected" Too bad,, he should. Im sure he just feels bad that he finally got caught.

[Michael]

As he should be. Maybe the realization that he's not above the law is making him depressed. All of the "special" people in the fantasyland known as Hollywood, where all the self important and self aggrandizing people live, need this type of treatment when they commit a crime. Maybe they'll start to live in reality.

[IronMike]

Anyone who, by his own admission, rapes and sodomizes a 13 year-old girl - even if she later "forgives him" - gets no sympathy from me. (And let's not forget the "forgiveness" came after a hefty monetary settlement from Polanski.) May he rot in prison for the rest of his days.

[Cath]

And how did Samantha feel after being raped by a famous Hollywood director?
Does Polanski ever consider any other person but himself? This man is deeply delusional and pathologically selfish.

[LaneyB]

He's depressed? How depressed was the poor kid he raped and tortured? Like we should care that he's despressed.

[Michael Mitchell]

I wonder if the girl he raped ever felt depressed?

I really don't care that this rapist got depressed.

[Kell Brigan]

This is what's convinced me all along that Polanski belongs in jail. If he truly regreted what he had done, he would have welcomed imprisonment as a way to do penance and redeem himself. I hope he's "dejected" because he's finally starting some long overdo housekeeping where his soul's concerned. Doesn't he get that he's likely to die with the next ten or fifteen or twenty years?

[Delta Sierra]

Awww, poor thing. Donja just hate it when your get-out-of-jail-free card expires?

[Jack]

In all honesty if I had young children I would not want Roman Polanski nor Michael Jackson in my neighborhood.

[BaitSlinger]

"Roman Polanski is depressed and in an "unsettled state of mind" ". Poor, poor, baby, I'm sorry I just can't find it in myself to feel any pity or sympathy for this poor excuse of a humanbeing. What is really sad is to think that Hollywood's "elite", also know as the "beautiful people" are acting like Polanski is some kind of hero and martyr that is being treated so unfairly by the US. But as the saying goes "Actions have consequences...first rule of life. And the second rule is this - you are the only one responsible for your own actions". If Polanski was any kind of a real man, he would have taken his punishment 30 years ago. What I think is great is the fact that he isn't above the law. After 30 years the chicken is returning to the coop, in a cage and by force but still he's on his way back.

[Bill]

Accustomed to a harem of "young ladies" and now held in a cell would depress anyone. He could have shown a little courage 31 years ago and accepted his punishment, but he fled. He was bigger than the law, bigger than the California courts, and answerable to no one, or so he thought. He cannot get used to the fact that he still must pay for his crime, and cannot understand that such a rape and sodomy and plying a child with booze and drugs is wrong. And not surprisingly, enough Hollywood types and other filth around the world seems to agree with him. Fighting extradition is usually time wasted in jail, because eventually, you're coming home to do your time.
See you soon Roman. Fear not, there are other sick predators in the penal system, so you won't be the only one.

[Duane]

Let him rot there, or rot here, it doesn't make any difference to me, as long as he does rot in the slam.

[missoula]

Hey, IronMike, learn to read a little, eh? He never paid her the money, only offerred it to her as part of a settlement that never happened. He's still a rapist, though.

[karen]

Heartbreaking that the unrepentant pedophile has not been released to a hero's welcome from his Hollywood co-conspirators and enablers. Such injustice.

Looks like he's going to be inhouse for a while. Maybe he should subscribe to a prison penpal website to pass the time and correspond with people who care.

[Dugobi]

Polanski is indeed in a sorry unfortunate situation. I suggest he be given the opportunity to improve his condition by allowing access to a length of rope and a woobley stool.

[Fed Up]

Depressed after 3 weeks in lock up. How many years was he on the run flaunting it in our faces? And why would the Feds be involved with a state matter? Are we to feel sorry for this SORRY pedophile?

[Wayne]

He should feel depressed. He is coming back here to the U.S. to spend the rest of his life in prison for Statutory rape. It looks good on him. Well deserved Mr. Polanski.

[El Guapo de la ciudad de los angeles]

He'll feel even more dejected and depressed when he walks the yard.

[Alex Datig]

If his lawyer is trying to convince people that Polanski is suffering from a psychological malady as a result of his actions, he is definitley making Polanski's case to be expidited to a psych hospital for him. After reading some of his lawyers "comments" about our justice system in German (I speak German) I can only say maybe his lawyer should also get his head examined.

On the other hand it would be nice to see Polanski do some time and then see him have to register as a sex offender wherever he goes. Either way, Polanski is learning a new word when it comes to his actions: "Consequences"

[Richard Ivey]

Most of the readers who make comments would probably not tell the truth if they were called up for jury duty. Would they honestly say whether they had already formed an opinion about Polanski? It is no wonder that Polanski fled from the USA.

[Marcia Twane]

There is a distinct lack of intelligence being expressed in the comments here and the salient point is being completely missed…this is NOT about a 76 year old man trying to get away with/from a 30 year old case…this IS about the failure of the justice system in this country:

The persecution of Roman Polanski exemplifies the corruption in the justice system of the United States…

From Samantha Geimer:

“We pressed charges, and he pleaded guilty. A plea bargain was agreed to by his lawyer, my lawyer and the district attorney, and it was approved by the judge. But to our amazement, at the last minute the judge went back on his word and refused to honor the deal.”

(Regardless of what you think about the charges being plead down, an agreement was made and approved by the judge. Then the judge went back on his word due to some very unsavory back room shenanigans. That was judicial misconduct.)

When something like this happens, our justice system ceases to be a “justice” system and becomes an unjust system. There is also a lot more to this than is included in this article.

Please see this piece written by Samantha Geimer from February of 2003:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/la-oe-samantha-geimer23-2003feb23,0,4716430.story

To all of you who are figuratively clamoring for Roman Polanski’s head, if you were in the same position, knowing all the nuances of what actually transpired (see the above statement from Samantha Geimer, etc.), you would do the same thing…

It is also very odd that the DA’s office has all of a sudden decided to pursue this now after more than 30 years. Polanski has traveled throughout Europe (and even owns a chalet in Switzerland). Why didn’t they go after him before? There are those who say that the current pursuit of Polanski is being used as a smokescreen to deflect attention away from the current failings of the DA’s office. There is truly something very wrong here.

Contact the DA’s office and let them know how you feel about them wasting the taxpayer’s dollars on this farce (when they should really be using their precious few resources to do the job they are elected/hired to do, like pursuing those issues that are currently harming all of us; the violence of the gangs of Los Angeles, the criminal behavior of executives of the credit card, bank and insurance companies, etc.):

District Attorney's Office
County of Los Angeles
210 West Temple Street, Suite 18000
Los Angeles, CA 90012-3210
Telephone (213) 974-3512
Fax (213) 974-1484
TTY (800) 457-7778
(8:30am - 5:00pm M-F)

(Please note that those of us who dare to defend Roman Polanski are not defending his actions in relation to the girl. We're defending the fact that he was treated atrociously (and incorrectly) by the American judicial system and it's time for this country to start keeping its own house in order before daring to criticize others.)

=========

This post (by JohnRJ08) from another article/column has excellent details about the legal proceedings and the judicial misconduct at the time:

I think there is a lot of anger about what Polanski did to Samantha Geimer, but there is also a lot of anger at how the criminal justice system in Los Angeles dysfunctioned during that case. While it's clear that Polanski committed a Class B felony, it is also clear that the Judge Rittenband was guilty of blatant judicial misconduct which caused Polanski to flee the country.

The idea that a judge would consult with a reporter about what Polanski's sentence should have been and that he would discuss the case in chambers with a non-participant attorney was bad enough. The fact that he publicly bragged that he planned to renege on the plea bargain he had formerly agreed to in chambers and put Polanski "in prison for the rest of his life" was gross misconduct.

If Rittenband hadn't committed this misconduct and honored the plea deal, Polanski would not have fled the country and this entire ordeal would be behind everybody, including the victim. Even the prosecuting attorney, Gunson, says he doesn't blame Polanski for fleeing under Rittenband's threat.

The Chino facility which did the psychological evaluation of Polanski at the Judge's request, recommended no jail time, and the District Attorney's office agreed to this because it was a "first offense Class B felony". The judge decided to ignore that recommendation because he was afraid that the press would criticize him for being soft on celebrities. Of course, it is the same exact sentence that any non-celebrity first-time offender would have received, so it was not a case of coddling a celebrity.

The bottom line is that the judge set the wheels in motion for this +30-year long controversy. According to state sentencing guidelines, a Class B felony committed by a first-time offender only calls for a sentence of probation and/or up to 2 years in County Jail. Polanski pled guilty and was fully prepared to accept whatever the psychological evaluation at Chino recommended. Rittenband, for highly questionable reasons, ignored all of those facts.

Posted by: JohnRJ08 | October 04, 2009 at 08:55 AM

[jamie]

Aw, poor baby. Maybe he can get his father,satan, to get him out.

IN such case that he cannot get out, maybe he can find some big brutes to comfort him.

[Janice]

Awwww... poor baby. Maybe a nice 13 year old will cheer him up?

[mwap]

This is why newspapers are useless. You would never see such an article about someone that the leftist media is not sympathetic to. If Timothy McVeigh were depressed that he was incarcerated it would never even occur to a reporter to write such a story as this. And it shouldn't. The criminal's state of mind at being caught is irrelevant.

Here the man has admitted to raping a child. He fled because even the slap on the wrist he received was too much for his delicate sensibilities to bear. Too bad. His final days upon this earth shall be sent contemplating his sins. Even as an atheist, I have to admit that I am not displeased at the prospect.

[Janice]

How ironic: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0782561/news#ni1031815

"Roman Polanski's wife, the actress and pop singer Emmanuelle Seigner, recently had her new album's release date moved from next month to some time in 2010. Executives are concerned that a duet between Seigner and Polanski is a little too much too soon under the current circumstances -- particularly with Seigner's line, "Who are you, sir, what are you doing in my bed?" and Polanski's reply, "I am the personification of love." The song's rumored working title, "Half a 'Lude," is reportedly being scrapped as well..."