Three decades after he fled the United States following his arrest for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl, Roman Polanski was taken into custody in Zurich this morning and faces extradition to Los Angeles.

Polanski, the famed film director whose career continued to flourish even after fleeing for Europe, was arrested as he arrived in the Swiss city to accept an award at the Zurich Film Festival.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office learned last week that Polanski had plans to travel to Zurich this weekend, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors sent a provisional arrest warrant to the U.S. Justice Department, which presented it to Swiss authorities. On at least two previous occasions, the district attorney’s office has received reports that Polanski had travel arrangements to countries with extradition treaties with the U.S. and prepared paperwork for his arrest, Gibbons said.
“But in the end, he apparently found out about it and didn’t go,” she said.

A source familiar with the investigation told The Times that the U.S. Marshals Service had come close to arresting Polanski half a dozen times or so over the past few decades -- though several of those opportunities presented themselves in the last two years.

"For one reason or another, it just didn't work out," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing. "There are so many variables."

The source said Polanski always was very careful about when and where he traveled. But as new questions arose in recent years about the fairness of his case, the source said Polanski appeared to become more at ease about travel.

Thomas Hession, head of the Marshals Service's Los Angeles office, would not comment on specifics of the case but said authorities moved quickly on each lead. "Any time information was developed, the L.A. County district attorney's office and the Marshals Service immediately acted on it."

Asked if prosecutors would ask that Polanski be sentenced to time behind bars if he were returned to the U.S., Gibbons said, “We’ve always maintained this is a matter between Polanski and the court. … We initially recommended prison time for him, but I can’t see into the future.”

An attorney for Polanski, Chad Hummel, declined to comment. “Right now, we’re not in a position to say anything,” he said.

Polanski, now 76 and a married father of two, asked the court to throw out the entire case based on new allegations of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct detailed in an HBO documentary last year. The L.A. district attorney’s office argued that he could not make such a request while a fugitive, and an L.A. judge earlier this year agreed. A 1997 attempt at settling the case also failed.

Polanski was arrested 31 years ago at a Beverly Hills hotel after a 13-year-old girl accused him of sexually assaulting her during a photo shoot at actor Jack Nicholson's house.

A 1978 arrest warrant, issued after he failed to appear at his sentencing on the statutory-rape conviction, is still in effect, and he would be taken into custody upon arrival on U.S. soil. The director of "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" has not returned to the U.S. since then but continues to work as a director, winning an Oscar for "The Pianist."

Polanski’s stay in Switzerland could be brief if he opts to return to Los Angeles.

“If he agrees with an extradition, he could be sent to the U.S. in the next days,” said Guido Ballmer, a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police.

But if Polanski declines to come back without a fight -- perhaps a more likely scenario given his three decades as a fugitive -- the court process could be quite lengthy, Ballmer told The Times.



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He won’t get too much time if he is brought back to the US. Judging by his AGE and naturally what he has done since this incident. If there is a pattern of behavior as such as what he is charged with in the US (habitual offender). Then that would be the only way I see him doing any substantial amount of time behind bars. They are only doing this to him since the high profile nature of the case and of what he was when the crime was committed. If anything he will be used as the new "example" of what NOT to do in Hollywood.

Too bad that he was out of town and Sharon Tate was home. I'm sure the fact he was on the lam for 30 years will affect his sentence. Hopefully he dies in jail after repeated rapes.

It seems odd that Switzerland would back the US and go against France on this. I wouldn't expect the Swiss to be so compliant to the US right now unless they negotiated for something, or just screwed up internally.

I heard this morning that he is a regular visitor to Switzerland and owns a home there.

Perhaps the Swiss are still working some angle with the USA regarding the banking secrecy stuff.

Toss the frog Cock-Sucker in jail and throw away the fucking key..

And for that fucking matter throw that little girls piece of shit parents in fucking jail too...!!

They are the ones that served her up to the sick fuck..

If my memory serves me correctly, Loopnode, you were opposed to my opinion against Roman in a previous post.


Did you have the chance to see the documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" and did that change your mind about him?

Actually I'm not sure why I disagreed with you at that time. Maybe I was drunk. Actually I talked to an editor called Sharon who gave me the whole story. What confuses me most is that I last talked to Sharon in 2006 so, not sure.

Well, to kill several birds with one stone...

I recommend the movie if you haven't seen it. Up until very recently it was on heavy rotation on HBO, and is still played--although much less frequently; and it is available on iTunes for $3.99.

It has been a while, and my memory is a bit foggy, but I think the victim, in her own words and on camera, insinuates that her mother knew what she was doing when she brought her to Roman in an effort to get her daughter into the movies. She doesn't state it outright, but the implication is there. This is what the "victim" claimed. Maybe my memory is off. I might need to re-rent that movie. Even though it was a pro-Polanski film, it made me like him less.

He drugged, raped, and sodomized a 13-year-old girl. Then he fled the country after the judge changed the sentencing. He had already served about 40 DAYS and everyone says he already served his time. 40 days for drugging and raping a child is not justice. You would get more if you kicked a dog.

Many years ago I saw a video of Roman saying something like "all these young girls want me ... they throw themselves at me". A girl who has been drugged isn't throwing herself at anyone. He had lured her to Jack Nickolson's home. Jack's girlfriend at the time was Anjelica Huston and I remember hearing that she saw the girl running out crying while Anjelica started screaming to Roman what have you done.

The girl was 13 while he was 43. He plead GUILTY and then later fled the country. He's a criminal and they finally got him. Case closed.

I just checked Google News and he's still in prison fighting extradition. For Switzerland to have arrested him even though he vacationed there all the time, they won't let him leave anytime soon and they will extradite him.

My bad. I read yesterday he was on bail. Bad info. Carry on.

But, Darrah would be outraged if that happened.

Oh there gonna Fucking extradite him allright..!!

Heard earlier that after he fled the country, he shacked up with 15 year old Natasha Richardson or Kinski in Europe. And something about him being in a bar with young girls.

I saw that his victim was wanting the charges dropped. But I hope the extradition happens and he gets jail time. This is so important to show the community and also other sex abuse victims that nobody can be above the law and that we make an attempt to pursue and punish people for this kind of behaviour. I am disgusted with all the people who are supporting him - what would happen if it was your daughter? I'm sure any normal citizen would get serious jail time for a similar offence - all Roman Polanski gets are accolades and awards. At the end of the day he's just a worthless pedophile who should spend the rest of his life in jail. I hope the Academy can insert his oscar up his arse

Didn't you hear Whoopi, it wasn't rape rape?

She's unbelievably stupid !

It's amazing to me that I replied to Loco Taco's last idiotic post around 9:30 pm PDST. Idiot-stick then edited her post at 9:43 pm (apparently), and this morning when I check in, my post has been deleted.

Darrah's original post, which I quoted, discussed how she had heard "earlier in the day" that Polanski had had an affair with Kinski, but that she got confused when she got around to making her contribution here.

Dear Darrah,

What makes you an IDIOT is that you learned something you considered important (or at least timely), immediately forgot it, then made up a bunch of shit that seemed to fit to fill in the gaps.

That's why you're an idiot.

More importantly, would any of you care to comment on why my earlier post was deleted?

Anyone read the victims deposition? Apparently he performed "cuddliness" on her, then fucked her vaginally and anally. Some of you might beat off while reading it.

The guy is a fucking creep.

Darrah's recollection:

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Jack's girlfriend at the time was Anjelica Huston and I remember hearing that she saw the girl running out crying while Anjelica started screaming to Roman what have you done.

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News story:

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Huston later described the teen as "sullen" in a probation report prepared at the time of Polanski's plea deal.

"She appeared to be one of those kind of little chicks between -- could be any age up to 25. She did not look like a 13-year-old scared little thing," Huston said.

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Fact: Darrah is an idiot.

@ben

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I saw that his victim was wanting the charges dropped. But I hope the extradition happens and he gets jail time. This is so important to show the community and also other sex abuse victims that nobody can be above the law and that we make an attempt to pursue and punish people for this kind of behaviour. I am disgusted with all the people who are supporting him - what would happen if it was your daughter? I'm sure any normal citizen would get serious jail time for a similar offence - all Roman Polanski gets are accolades and awards. At the end of the day he's just a worthless pedophile who should spend the rest of his life in jail. I hope the Academy can insert his oscar up his arse

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Another high and mighty sucker who gets pissed and nasty and wishes the worst for the one who indirectly reminded him that his beliefs are nothing but a bubble. Lame shit.

I want to tell Sharon Tate's sister that what Charles Manson did wasn't murder murder.

What would Whoopi say if it was her 13 year old daughter? When is a 43 year old man having sex with a 13 year old girl ever OK?

I love the fact that the stupid film community is in agreement that if you drug & rape a 13 year old, and then run off to where there's no US extradition treaty and spend the rest of your life giving the finger to US justice..if you do it long enough, it's OK to treat his offense as if it never happened. Right. Bring him back to the USA and hang the fucker by his balls!!

Let's try and focus on what this dispute is really about:

1. He spent 6 weeks in jail
2. He plead guilty to one charge, the others were dropped in exchange for his plea, so he is not guilty of those, regardless of what anyone says;
3. It was a condition of his plea that he receive credit for the time already spent in jail and that he would not spend anymore time in jail;
4. Another prosecutor, who was not involved in the case, coached the judge, without other counsel knowing, and convinced him to throw out the plea deal;
5. That was when Polanski fled - after the system was corrupted; and,
6. The same renegade prosecutor is the one that just leaked the Grand Jury testimony to ABC (and is the only one interviewed in the article).

Noone is defending sex with under-age girls (at least nobody who is sane), but you can't say that the whole process surrounding the punishment phase of Polanski's trial wasn't tainted.

As to you folks that argue that the jail time is too little. Maybe you're right, but the fact is, his crime does not merit the death penalty (despite what many would understandably wish), so he would have received a finite amount of jail time.

The prosecution and the defence agreed on the appropriate length of punishment. Whether you think that was right or not, they had a plea deal that was (apparently) within the sentencing guidelines

Soopergrizz:

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Let's try and focus on what this dispute is really about:

<snip>

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Spoken like a true barrister!

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I am disgusted with all the people who are supporting him - what would happen if it was your daughter?

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the victim and her family consider the matter settled and don't want it to go to trial. i don't see how calling for his head makes you a better person, or whatever.