Roman Polanski still being hounded by L.A. County prosecutors

With the state Legislature forced to make dramatic cuts in the prison budget and a three-judge federal panel having recently ordered California lawmakers to release as many as 40,000 inmates in response to the scandalous overcrowding of the California state prison system, it seems like an especially inauspicious time for the L.A. County district attorney's office to be spending some of our few remaining tax dollars seeing if it can finally, after all these years, put Roman Polanski behind bars.

As you've probably heard, the French-born filmmaker, who won a best director Oscar in absentia for the 2002 film "The Pianist," was arrested by Swiss police late Saturday as he arrived to accept an award at the Zurich Film Festival. At the request of the L.A. County district attorney's office, Polanski has been placed in custody -- the official term is "provisional detention for extradition'' -- awaiting a U.S. decision to make a formal extradition request.

Polanski has been living in France for the past three decades, directing films and raising a family with actress Emanuelle Seigner. He has been a fugitive from justice in the U.S. since 1978, when he fled the country rather than stand charges of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. The case has been a cause celebre for years, with charges and counter-charges rocketing back and forth, many involving the controversial efforts of the original presiding judge to put Polanski safely away behind bars. It added another dramatic chapter to a life of tragedy for the filmmaker, who fled the Krakow ghetto during the Nazi occupation not long after his mother was sent to the gas chambers. In 1969, his wife, Sharon Tate, then pregnant with Polanski's child, was murdered by the Charles Manson family at a hillside home in Los Angeles. 

Meanwhile, Polanski's victim, Samantha Geimer, long ago announced that she had forgiven the filmmaker for his transgressions and supported various efforts to have the case against him dismissed. I don't think that you'd find many people who would approve of Polanski's behavior, which was disgusting -- he drugged his victim with champagne and Quaaludes before raping her during a 1977 photo session at Jack Nicholson's house.

But at a time when California is shredding the safety net that protects the poor and the unemployed, not to mention the budget of the public school system, you'd hope that L.A. County prosecutors had better things to do than cause an international furor by hounding a film director for a 32-year-old sex crime, especially one that Polanski's victim wants to put behind her. As Marina Zenovich's 2008 documentary, "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," ably chronicled, the original prosecution of Polanski was marred by all sorts of embarrassing missteps and strange behavior, largely by Laurence Rittenband, the original presiding judge. 

Still, actions have consequences, and Polanski's sins have not been forgotten. He has been barred from returning to the U.S. and prevented from traveling to other countries, including England, because of extradition issues. His career has clearly suffered from his inability to work in Hollywood, where he made such celebrated films as "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby." He has been embraced by many -- having won a number of awards over the years -- but also shunned by a number of detractors. As he put it in his autobiography: "I am widely regarded, I know, as an evil, profligate dwarf."

But he also has his stout defenders, notably French Minister of Culture Frederic Mitterrand, who said over the weekend that he was "dumbfounded" by Polanski's arrest in Switzerland, adding that he "strongly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already experienced so many of them."

In the coming weeks, the Polanski affair will no doubt become a tabloid sensation, with op-ed moralists, excitable bloggers and the Glenn Becks of the world noisily weighing in on the propriety of his possible prosecution. Some will say Polanski is a predator whose punishment is long overdue. Others will argue that it's the height of  folly to be stalking a 76-year-old man who has admitted his guilt and was long ago forgiven by his victim.

We live in an age that is so thoroughly post-modern that you can find an obvious literary antecedent for nearly every seamy media storyline. The same goes for the Polanski case, which is full of echoes of "Les Miserables," the classic Victor Hugo novel about Jean Valjean, an ex-con trying to turn his life around who is being obsessively tracked and hunted down by the Parisian police inspector Javert.

Hugo's story is a tragedy, as is the life story of Polanski, who was a fugitive as a boy and is now a fugitive as an old man. Whether the L.A. County district attorney office has its way or not, it is not a story that can have a happy ending. I think Polanski has already paid a horrible, soul-wrenching price for the infamy surrounding his actions. The real tragedy is that he will always, till his death, be snubbed and stalked and confronted by people who think the price he has already paid isn't enough.

Video: Roman Polanski in "Chinatown."

Photo of Roman Polanski by Gerard Julien/AFP/Getty Images.

Comments

[tasbags]

LA Times: please do not think that Patrick Goldstein's article is "controversial" and "stirring up discussion in the community" and therefore a good thing, because: page views. We all think he's really stupid and not a good critical thinker, and I certainly won't keep reading him. In fact, I'm instead going to read Amanda Hess in the Washington City Paper, who I see links to this article and does a stand-up job deflating its bad arguments.

A couple more points, other than the obvious "no sir, the 'real tragedy' was the whole rape thing'" problem:

This whole romanticization of Polanski's crime, by comparing it to Les Miserables? Stealing a loaf of bread to feed your family = drugging and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl, in terms of forgivability years down the road? C'mon man, at least go for Humbert Humbert if you're gonna get all lit theory on us!

Polanski has been "barred" from returning to the US only to the extent that, if he comes back, he will be arrested for *fleeing his trial.*

Yes, Samantha Geimer publicly forgave Polanski. A lot of rape victims do similar things, and I can imagine that it can be part of the healing process. Does that mean that we as a society have absolved Polanski of his crime? That's not how justice works! And thank god!

[John Smith]

Talented Jews should be able to forcibly rape and sodomize whatever gentile children they like. What's the big deal?

[Lisa Beth W.]

Good grief, comparing Polanski to Jean Valjean? That is utterly ridiculous. The former is a criminal who preyed upon a child who has yet to come to justice for that heinous act. The other is one who served his time and selflessly cared for and loved a child. Enough of the romanticizing of this jerk.

[moe shirazi]

Dear Patrick Goldstein:
Just some facts... Roman gave a 13 year old girl drugs and booze then vaginally and anally raped her as she said "No" repeatedly. She did not "want it". She was not a Lolita as Roman's friends went to her school and post fliers to humilate her btw. Her Mother is not the criminal. Nor is the victim of the rape. Will all you in Hollywood stop smearing her? This is why she wants it dismissed, so you and your kind will not smear her again.

Polanski spent 43 days in Chino prison undergoing a pre-sentencing psyiactric evaluation. The DA accepted the psycologists (2) recommendation that Polanski only do time served. The standard in the 70's was to "blame the victim". The men who made this recommendation to the Judge. The Judge makes the final decision at sentencing. He did not go along with this obvious miss-cariage of justice - 43 days for pedofile rape.

Please be fair in your reporting. By definition Roman Polanski is a Pedofile. He admitted during his eval that he knew the girl was 13, but he found sexually arousing. Thats the definition of a Pedofile. Please stop saying that he had sex with a girl. He raped a girl.

Exactly what does the passage of time have to do with this? At what time do we say forget it after commiting a felony? And at what age if not 13. If the girl is especially fetching 11 year old and the man is a famous artist, is "sex" still ok. Perhaps you can enlighten us on your moral boundaries!

[nader paul kucinich gravel]

Rachel sure did have a BIG problem with Grayson's use of a word...
She sounded just like an AIPAC Neocon "dishing out the punishment"

Honesty compassion intelligence guts?
We have an ongoing American Holocaust.
Do you still want to believe what they told you about 9/11?
The guilty are busy importing private mercenaries to hide behind.

[DP]

Except that Jean Valjean stole a loaf of bread to stay alive, and Roman Polanski drugged a 13-year-old girl with champagne and Quaaludes and then raped her. Are you serious?

[Ed]

I guess it would be OK to Patrick Goldstein if his 13 year old daughter got raped by Roman Polanski.

[Scott Mercer]

Mr. Goldstein:

As the father of three daughters and two grand daughters, I find the act of forcing drugs and alcohol upon a thirteen year old girl, and then raping her, indefensible. In reading my previous sentence however it strikes me that the fact I am a father and a grand father is not relevant. Everyone should be outraged at this behavior.

I find it hard to understand feeling that Mr. Polanski has paid his debt to society or, in the case of the most vocal of his defenders, that what he did, although regrettable, is more than offset by his artistic achievements.

I cannot help but compare the capture of this pervert, after thirty plus years, to the needed and successful hunt for Nazi war criminals that still continues to this day. But then again, their movies didn’t get the gross of Polanski’s.

[whoopi goldberg]

Patrick Goldstein probably

applauds when a priest is arrested for a 20-year old rape crime , and

applauds when a school teacher is arrested for rape .....

but when a famed director does it ..... it's a travesty of justice ?!?!?!?!?

disgraceful hypocrite

[Dan]

One major difference between Polanski and Jean Valjean is that Jean Valjean stole bread to feed his starving family, while Polanski drugged and raped a 13 year old. Yes, it's hard to flee from the Nazis and have your wife murdered. It doesn't excuse you for pedophilia, though. I like his movies as much as the next guy, but that's all the more reason not to let him off easy. He'd be a great person to make an example of.