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Polanski Arrested in Switzerland; Possible extradiction to US


Mavrik

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Time's Up. Roman.

Yes. The long arm of the law has proven to be the patient arm of the law.

I found this to be classic truism in the write-up:

Polanski has not been extradited from France because his crime reportedly was not covered under treaties between the United States and France.

In Paris, Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said he was "dumbfounded" by Polanski's arrest, adding that he "strongly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already experienced so many of them."

Apparently it's ok to drug and sodomize 8th grade girls in France. Mitterrand wasn't specific as to whether everybody gets to do that, or only if you've personally had a tough road in life.

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The most ironic part of it all is that from what it sounds like..he wouldn't have gotten much jail time thanks to the plea deal in 78'. (in spite of the judge reneging on said plea deal). Now, he can probably enjoy spending the next 5-10 years in prison, possibly longer.

I also agree that the things that have happened in Polanski's life have no bearing on the crime he committed. The guy had probably the most horrific childhood imaginable (not to mention his wife being murdered), but it still doesn't excuse you from sodomizing a 13 year old girl. No different than it excuses anybody else who had a rough childhood from committing murder.

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Read another article that talked about the outrage in both France and Poland over his arrest and how Polish politicians discussed petititoning the U.S. govt. for his pardon. Then, I just happened to see this article on the same page:

Poland okays forcible castration for pedophiles

Fri Sep 25, 2009 12:45pm EDT

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland on Friday approved a law making chemical castration mandatory for pedophiles in some cases, sparking criticism from human rights groups.

Under the law, sponsored by Poland's center-right government, pedophiles convicted of raping children under the age of 15 years or a close relative would have to undergo chemical therapy on their release from prison.

"The purpose of this action is to improve the mental health of the convict, to lower his libido and thereby to reduce the risk of another crime being committed by the same person," the government said in a statement.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said late last year he wanted obligatory castration for pedophiles, whom he branded 'degenerates'. Tusk said he did not believe "one can use the term 'human' for such individuals, such creatures."

"Therefore I don't think protection of human rights should refer to these kind of events," Tusk also said.

His remarks drew criticism from human rights groups but he never retracted them.

"Introducing any mandatory treatment raises doubts as such a requirement is never reasonable and life can always produce cases that lawmakers could never have even dreamt of," said Piotr Kladoczny from the Helsinki Foundation of Human Rights.

"If somebody is of sound mind, we punish him. If he is sick, we try to cure him -- that's how it works in Polish law. This bill introduces both approaches. As far as I know, this makes our law the strictest in Europe on this issue," Kladoczny said.

The bill, which also increases prison sentences for rape and incest, must still be approved by the upper chamber of parliament. This is seen as a formality as Tusk's Civic Platform party holds a majority of its 100 seats.

How do they say "Irony" in Polish?

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Is there a statute of limitation on Rape cases?

GOB?

DLJ - There isn't one in Michigan, however every state is different. Given the nature of rape and the trauma it causes, I would assume most states do not have SOLs on theirs as well. I personally think that Rape is just as serious, if not even more of a serious crime that murder. Sounds sick, but what I mean by that is that a murdered person doesn't have to live their rest of their life with the trauma and emotional distressed caused by a rape. It's the ultimate Crimes Against the Person...as violent and traumatic as any crime can be, and the victim is "sentenced" to a lifetime of the memory in her head.

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DLJ - There isn't one in Michigan, however every state is different. Given the nature of rape and the trauma it causes, I would assume most states do not have SOLs on theirs as well. I personally think that Rape is just as serious, if not even more of a serious crime that murder. Sounds sick, but what I mean by that is that a murdered person doesn't have to live their rest of their life with the trauma and emotional distressed caused by a rape. It's the ultimate Crimes Against the Person...as violent and traumatic as any crime can be, and the victim is "sentenced" to a lifetime of the memory in her head.

Thanks and repped.

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DLJ - There isn't one in Michigan, however every state is different. Given the nature of rape and the trauma it causes, I would assume most states do not have SOLs on theirs as well. I personally think that Rape is just as serious, if not even more of a serious crime that murder. Sounds sick, but what I mean by that is that a murdered person doesn't have to live their rest of their life with the trauma and emotional distressed caused by a rape. It's the ultimate Crimes Against the Person...as violent and traumatic as any crime can be, and the victim is "sentenced" to a lifetime of the memory in her head.

His or her. Men can be and are raped. A lot.

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Is there a statute of limitation on Rape cases?

GOB?

DLJ - There isn't one in Michigan, however every state is different. Given the nature of rape and the trauma it causes, I would assume most states do not have SOLs on theirs as well. I personally think that Rape is just as serious, if not even more of a serious crime that murder. Sounds sick, but what I mean by that is that a murdered person doesn't have to live their rest of their life with the trauma and emotional distressed caused by a rape. It's the ultimate Crimes Against the Person...as violent and traumatic as any crime can be, and the victim is "sentenced" to a lifetime of the memory in her head.

No SOL? Wow. New York had one of the shortest. 5 years IIRC. That's as of 2006 when I left. They were always talking about lengthening it-especially in light of the fact that DNA can often prove it down the line. I know that NOW was on them hard and there were bills proposed to lengthen the SOL, but I stopped following it once I moved over here.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez30-2009sep30,0,1671827,full.column

STEVE LOPEZ

Polanski's defenders lose sight of the true victim

The grand jury transcripts of the sex abuse case paint a far more damaging picture of the events that allegedly unfolded between the director and a 13-year-old girl at Jack Nicholson's home in 1977.

Q: Did you resist at that time?

A: A little bit, but not really because . . .

Q: Because what?

A: Because I was afraid of him.

That's Roman Polanski's 13-year-old victim testifying before a grand jury about how the famous director forced himself on her at Jack Nicholson's Mulholland Drive home in March of 1977.

I'm reading this in the district attorney's office at the Los Angeles County Criminal Courts Building, digging through the Polanski file to refresh my memory of the infamous case, and my blood pressure is rising.

Is it because I'm the parent of a girl?

Maybe that's part of it.

But I wish the renowned legal scholars Harvey Weinstein and Debra Winger, to name just two of Polanski's defenders, were here with me now. I'd like to invite Martin Scorsese, as well, along with David Lynch, who have put their names on a petition calling for Polanski to be freed immediately.

What, because he won an Oscar? Would they speak up for a sex offender who hadn't?

To hear these people tell it, you'd think Polanski was the victim rather than the teenager.

And then there's Woody Allen, who has signed the petition too.

Woody Allen?

You'd think that after marrying his longtime girlfriend's adopted daughter, he'd have the good sense to remain silent. But at least Soon-Yi Previn was a consenting adult.

I'd like to show all these great luminaries the testimony from Polanski's underage victim, as well as Polanski's admission of guilt. Then I'd like to ask whether, if the victim were their daughter, they'd be so cavalier about a crime that was originally charged as sodomy and rape before Polanski agreed to a plea bargain. Would they still support Polanski's wish to remain on the lam living the life of a king, despite the fact that he skipped the U.S. in 1977 before he was sentenced?

The Zurich Film Festival has been "unfairly exploited" by Polanski's arrest, Winger said. Thanks, Deb. And so sorry the film festival was inconvenienced by the arrest of a man who left the United States to avoid sentencing for forcing himself on a child.

Weinstein, meanwhile, issued an open letter urging "every U.S. filmmaker to lobby against any move to bring Polanski back to the U.S.," arguing that "whatever you think of the so-called crime, Polanski has served his time."

So-called crime?

Let's get back to the grand jury testimony.

Polanski has taken the girl to Nicholson's house to photograph her, ostensibly for a French magazine. The girl's mother, it's clear to me, should have had her head examined for allowing this to happen, but that's another matter.

The girl says Polanski, who was in his 40s at the time, opened a bottle of champagne and shared it with her and with an adult woman who later left for work. That's when Polanski allegedly began taking pictures of the 13-year-old and suggested that she remove her blouse.

Quoting again from the grand jury transcript, with the girl being questioned by a prosecutor:

Q: Did you take your shirt off or did Mr. Polanski?

A: No, I did.

Q: Was that at his request or did you volunteer to do that?

A: That was at his request.

She said Polanski later went into the bathroom and took part of a Quaalude pill and offered her some, as well, and she accepted.

Q: Why did you take it?

A: I don't know. I think I must have been pretty drunk or else I wouldn't have.

So here she is, at 13, washing down a Quaalude with champagne, and then Polanski suggested they move out to the Jacuzzi.

Q: When you got in the Jacuzzi, what were you wearing?

A: I was going to wear my underwear, but he said for me to take them off.

She says Polanski went back in the house and returned in the nude and got into the Jacuzzi with her. When he told her to move closer to him, she resisted, saying, "No. No, I got to get out."

He insisted, she testified, and so she moved closer and he put his hands around her waist. She told him she had asthma and wanted to get out, and she did. She said he followed her into the bathroom, where she told him, "I have to go home now."

Q: What did Mr. Polanski say?

A: He told me to go in the other room and lie down.

She testified that she was afraid and sat on the couch in the bedroom.

Q: What were you afraid of?

A: Him.

She testified that Polanski sat down next to her and said she'd feel better. She repeated that she had to go home.

Q: What happened then?

A: He reached over and he kissed me. And I was telling him, "No," you know, "Keep away." But I was kind of afraid of him because there was no one else there.

She testified that he put his mouth on her vagina.

"I was ready to cry," she said. "I was kind of -- I was going, 'No. Come on. Stop it.' But I was afraid."

She said he then pulled off her panties.

Q: What happened after that?

A: He started to have intercourse with me.

At this point, she testified, Polanski became concerned about the consequences and asked if she was on the pill.

No, she told him.

Polanski had a solution, according to her.

"He goes, 'Would you want me to go in through your back?' And I went, 'No.' "

According to her, that didn't stop Polanski, who began having anal sex with her.

This was when the victim was asked by the prosecutor if she resisted and she said, "Not really," because "I was afraid of him." She testified that when the ordeal had ended, Polanski told her, "Oh, don't tell your mother about this."

He added: "This is our secret."

But it wasn't a secret for long. When the victim got home and told her story, her mother called the police.

Now granted, we only have the girl's side of things. But an LAPD criminalist testified before the grand jury that tests of the girl's panties "strongly indicate semen." And a police officer who searched Polanski's hotel room found a Quaalude and photos of the girl.

Two weeks after the encounter on Mulholland Drive, Polanski was indicted for furnishing a controlled substance to a minor, committing a lewd or lascivious act upon a child under 14, unlawful sexual intercourse, rape by use of drugs, perversion (oral copulation) and sodomy.

Three months later, a plea bargain was worked out. Court records indicate that the victim and her family had asked the district attorney's office to spare the victim the trauma of testifying at a criminal trial.

"A stigma would attach to her for a lifetime," the family's attorney argued.

So Polanski pleaded guilty to just one count -- unlawful sexual intercourse. The other charges were dropped.

Polanski spent 42 days in prison for pre-sentencing diagnostic tests. After his release, but before his sentencing in 1978, he skipped, boarding a plane for Europe because he feared he would be ordered to serve more time in prison. A warrant for his arrest has been in effect ever since, and Polanski was arrested this week in Switzerland.

He is fighting extradition, but I hope he loses that fight, gets hustled back to California and finally gets a sentence that fits his crime.

There's little question that this case was mishandled in many ways. According to a recent documentary, the now-deceased judge inappropriately discussed sentencing with a prosecutor who wasn't working the case. And Polanski's lawyers allege that the director fled only because he believed the judge would cave under public pressure and renege on a promise that he would serve no more time.

Regardless of whether there was such a deal, Polanski had not yet been sentenced, and under state law at the time, he could have been sent away for many years. Does anyone really believe 42 days was an appropriate penalty given the nature of the case?

Yes, Polanski has known great tragedy, having survived the Holocaust and having lost his wife, Sharon Tate and their unborn son, to the insanity of the Charles Manson cult.

But that has no bearing on the crime in question.

His victim, who settled a civil case against Polanski for an unspecified amount, said she does not want the man who forced himself on her to serve additional time.

That's big-hearted of her but also irrelevant, and so is the fact that the victim had admitted to having sex with a boyfriend before meeting Polanski.

Polanski stood in a Santa Monica courtroom on Aug. 8, 1977, admitted to having his way with a girl three decades his junior and told a judge that indeed, he knew she was only 13.

There may well have been judicial misconduct.

But no misconduct was greater than allowing Polanski to cop a plea to the least of his charges. His crime was graphic, manipulative and heinous, and he got a pass. It's unbelievable, really, that his soft-headed apologists are rooting for him to get another one.

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The A-Hole PLED down his original charge of RAPE for christ's sake. But hey, he has $ and he's famous so he's entitled to desperate rights?

F Him. If he didn't like his sentence, he could have withdrawn his plea and took it to trial. Instead, he fled the country and lived on the run for 30 years.

Send his ass to prison.

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Let's see...this perverted piece of sh*t forced himself (if not physically, certainlly mentally) on a 13 YEAR OLD GIRL. He raped and sodomized her....yet people are calling for leniency? Moonbat liberal wacko Hollywood is defending the child rapist. Figures. I have a 13 year old niece - I know how they are....half child, half woman....easily manipulated, easily scared...a lot dumber than they think they are.

So, Plexico Buress gets two years in prison for being a dumbazz, Michael Vick kills some pooches and gets two years, yet Polanski - who raped a 13 year old girl and then became of fugitive - should be free as a birdie.

This world is effed.

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I get a kick out of the idiots who say 'but the girl forgave him' so what? The law doesn't care about the victim, it is STATE vs. Polanski.

If a victim of a rape wants the law to string him up by his balls, does the law accomodate that victim? Hell no.

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The A-Hole PLED down his original charge of RAPE for christ's sake. But hey, he has $ and he's famous so he's entitled to desperate rights?

F Him. If he didn't like his sentence, he could have withdrawn his plea and took it to trial. Instead, he fled the country and lived on the run for 30 years.

Send his ass to prison.

The quicker the better for this POS.

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Let's see...this perverted piece of sh*t forced himself (if not physically, certainlly mentally) on a 13 YEAR OLD GIRL. He raped and sodomized her....yet people are calling for leniency? Moonbat liberal wacko Hollywood is defending the child rapist. Figures. I have a 13 year old niece - I know how they are....half child, half woman....easily manipulated, easily scared...a lot dumber than they think they are.

So, Plexico Buress gets two years in prison for being a dumbazz, Michael Vick kills some pooches and gets two years, yet Polanski - who raped a 13 year old girl and then became of fugitive - should be free as a birdie.

This world is effed.

Especially France. I wish they'd just butt TF out. He should have been returned to the US right after he frled. Civilized countries do this. France is acting like some 3rd world rogue nation.

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Polanski pled guilty, so he admits to doing the things as listed in Sperm's transcript. His defenders think because he's an ARTIST, he should get a pass, Woody Allen among them(which is impossible to fathom them allowing Allen, who married his teenage stepdaughter after going after he when she was in high school and he was in his 50s). It's selective feminism-certain people are BAD, and certain wonderful,artistic people are GOOD, so we can excuse the criminality of the GOOD and go after the BAD guys.If it was a plumber or a cop or a Marine who drugged and anally attacked a 13-year old girl, those BAD people should be punished.

This is factual, not political; think Ted Kennedy. So what he let a girl drown in his car, or facilitated his nephew attacking a young lady; he's a GOOD guy.he did so much GOOD. No consequences ever.

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This is factual, not political; think Ted Kennedy. So what he let a girl drown in his car, or facilitated his nephew attacking a young lady; he's a GOOD guy.he did so much GOOD. No consequences ever.

How'd ya like to be a fly on the wall in Satan's bedroom right about now?

:lol:

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Polanski pled guilty, so he admits to doing the things as listed in Sperm's transcript. His defenders think because he's an ARTIST, he should get a pass, Woody Allen among them(which is impossible to fathom them allowing Allen, who married his teenage stepdaughter after going after he when she was in high school and he was in his 50s). It's selective feminism-certain people are BAD, and certain wonderful,artistic people are GOOD, so we can excuse the criminality of the GOOD and go after the BAD guys.If it was a plumber or a cop or a Marine who drugged and anally attacked a 13-year old girl, those BAD people should be punished.

This is factual, not political; think Ted Kennedy. So what he let a girl drown in his car, or facilitated his nephew attacking a young lady; he's a GOOD guy.he did so much GOOD. No consequences ever.

Yeah, and you're an anti-femite.

...wanna be a moderator here?

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