Roman Polanski Arrested

I didn't see this coming.

Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland on a sex charge from 31 years ago.

ZURICH (AP) -- Director Roman Polanski was taken into custody, Swiss police confirmed Sunday, on a 1978 U.S. arrest warrant for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Polanski was flying in to receive an honorary award at the Zurich Film Festival when he was detained late Saturday at the airport, organizers at the festival said in a statement.

Zurich police spokesman Stefan Oberlin confirmed Polanski's arrest, but refused to provide more details because he said it was a matter for the Swiss Justice Ministry.

Ministry spokesman Guido Balmer declined to comment. Rudolf Wyss, the Justice Ministry deputy director, also declined to comment on the case. But he told The AP that Switzerland and the U.S. have an extradition treaty dating back to the 1950s that is still in force.

The Polish-born director fled the United States in 1978, a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

The 76-year-old director of such classic films as "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" has asked a U.S. appeals court in California to overturn a judges' refusal to throw out his case. He claims misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.

Polanski has lived for the past three decades in France, where his career has continued to flourish. He received a directing Oscar in absentia for the 2002 movie "The Pianist."

...The Swiss Directors Association sharply criticized authorities for what it deemed "not only a grotesque farce of justice, but also an immense cultural scandal."

A native of France who was taken to Poland by his parents, Polanski escaped Krakow's Jewish ghetto as a child and lived off the charity of strangers. His mother died at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp.

...But his life was shattered again in 1969 when his wife, actress Sharon Tate, and four other people were gruesomely murdered by followers of Charles Manson. She was eight months pregnant.

...In 1977, he was accused of raping a teenager while photographing her during a modeling session. The girl said Polanski plied her with champagne and part of a Quaalude pill at Jack Nicholson's house while the actor was away. She said that, despite her protests, he performed oral sex, intercourse and sodomy on her.

...The now 45-year-old victim, Samantha Geimer, who long ago identified herself publicly, has joined in Polanski's bid for dismissal, saying she wants the case to be over. She sued Polanski and reached an undisclosed settlement.

I can't believe that this was the first opportunity to arrest Polanski after he fled the U.S.

He hasn't been in hiding. Why now?

That's what's so bizarre.

In March 2003, Hollywood bestowed an Oscar on Polanski for best directing. Obviously, Hollywood forgave Polanski or at least chose to overlook his crimes as a child predator.

Polanski's victim, Samantha Geimer, is now a middle-aged woman. She sued Polanski and was satisfied with the settlement. She's cool with the case being dropped.

Maybe Polanski will be extradited to the U.S. and Obama will pardon him.

To Err Is Human--

Polanski was human. He drugged and had sex with a child. So what? It happens, right?

To Forgive Divine--

Obama is divine.

Perhaps rather than finally forcing Polanski to pay for his crimes against society, this will turn out to be more of a welcome home party.
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Samantha Geimer, Polanski's prey, has moved on.

From New York Magazine, May 8, 2008:

Big names like Dustin Hoffman and Sidney Lumet came out for Tuesday's premiere of the new HBO documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which details the questionable judicial dealings that led to the director's now 30-year exile in France. But the surprise guest of the night was Samantha Geimer, the woman with whom Polanski had "unlawful sexual intercourse" at Jack Nicholson's house when she was 13. (He pleaded guilty and fled the country before his final sentencing.) Geimer had flown in from Hawaii, "a beautiful spot where no one is aware or even cares"; she's now happily married with three children and working as a "personal assistant, accountant, and bookkeeper" for a real-estate developer. Both her husband and her mother, who had taken her to the party where the incident took place, had gotten gussied up with her for the premiere. After all, Geimer's Polanski association usually means having to give uncomfortable interviews about her past — "Nothing as fabulous as this," she says. "We thought this would be really fun. We don't get many chances to come to New York, so I was really happy to come and see the city and do all this fabulous stuff. Got to be back to work on Friday or the boss will fire me."

Geimer, who bought a new dress and shoes at Saks just for the occasion, says that participating in the documentary was a strategic move. "Generally for me, it's just easier that if people want to talk to me, I talk to them," she says. "That way they don't sit out in front of my house and wait for me." Plus, she approves of the movie — "I didn't think somebody could make it that interesting" — and hopes it will quell some of the curiosity about what happened that night. "I'm glad [director Marina Zenovich] put the truth of the way it happened out there, because I don't want to have to tell people," she says. "It's nice that she went ahead and did it, so people can know the truth and I can just go, 'It's a great movie!'"

I don't know that I could be that detached seeing a documentary about a horrific childhood experience from my personal past.

I guess time heals all wounds.

And in some cases, so does money.