Polanski no longer a fugitive from justice…
Good morning, Netizens...
I have no great pontification to make regarding Roman Polanski's arrest in Zurich, Switzerland recently, for the crime he has been charged with committing, that of illegally having sexual intercourse, with a 13 year-old girl in actor Jack Nicholson's house in Los Angeles in 1977 is and was a shoddily-performed piece of work from my point of view.
There is little doubt, however, of the man's cinematic genius, which has nothing to do with the criminal charges he is facing. Rosemary's Baby, The Piano and Chinatown all stand tall as evidence of his brilliance yet Polanski fled the US on the eve of being sentenced after admitting unlawful sexual intercourse with 13 year-old Samantha Geimer in 1977. If he was innocent of those charges, why did he run?
What is equally of interest, why did the Los Angeles District Attorney wait this long to extradite Polanski? His lawyers suggest prosecutors did not want to have to deal with allegations of prosecution and judicial misconduct in the original handling of Polanski's case. That's odd, as it is the first time I've heard that mentioned before. Some sources state the reason they filed now, rather than years ago, is that Polanski's lawyers recently filed to have the charges dropped. When the district attorney's office discovered that Polanski would be in Zurich to attend a film festival, they arrested him there.
There are some charges of gross misconduct on the part of the District Attorney's office, and other allegations that Polanski's original arrest had political motivations.
The bottom line for me remains, did he commit the crime? Why did the LA prosecutor wait so long to press for extradition?
Like so many high-profile criminal cases, there are more questions than answers. Not being privy to the facts surrounding the case, aside from the salacious image of a 13 year-old girl in a hot tub, my only thought is that, were that my daughter, I would want answers long before now, and if I couldn't get the answers from either my daughter or the DA's office, I might resort to other means.
Dave