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Re: Polanski finally arrested
Festival says director Polanski in Swiss custody
Sep 27, 6:28 AM (ET)
ZURICH (AP) - Director Roman Polanski has been taken into custody by Swiss police on a 31-year-old U.S. arrest warrant, organizers of the Zurich Film Festival said Sunday.
The organizers said in a statement that Polanski was detained by police Saturday in relation to a 1978 U.S. request, without giving details. Zurich police couldn't immediately confirm the information.
Polanski 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" recently sought dismissal of his case on grounds of 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."
Festival organizers said Polanski traveled to Switzerland to receive an award for his lifetime of work as a director.
They said Polanski's detention had caused "shock and dismay," but that they would go ahead with Sunday's planned retrospective of the director's work.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090927/D9AVJSLG0.html
Re: Polanski finally arrested
From the one you'd actually expect to have a say in the matter:
Polanski victim urges end to case
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
The victim at the centre of the statutory rape case involving film-maker Roman Polanski in 1977 has asked a US court to drop charges against him. Samantha Geimer said the continued publication of details "causes harm to me, my husband and children". She has also called the court's insistence that Polanski appear in person for the dismissal hearing on 21 January "a cruel joke". Polanski has never returned to the US to face charges since fleeing in 1978. While in exile in France, he won the best director Oscar in 2002 for holocaust drama The Pianist.
Feelings
Ms Geimer, 45, said in her written declaration to the court: "If Polanski cannot stand before the court to make this request, I, as the victim, can and I, as the victim, do." "I have urged that this matter come to a formal legal end. I have urged that the district attorney and the court dismiss these charges," she added.
Last week, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney David Walgren filed a motion describing the incident in graphic detail in court papers for the first time. Ms Geimer has said she believes this is a ploy to deflect accusations of wrongdoing in the case made more than 30 years ago. She added that her feelings should have been taken into account before the legal papers were submitted.
Polanski's bid to have the Los Angeles Superior Court disqualified from any hearings was rejected. His lawyer lodged the bid in response to a television documentary about the case, which made allegations about the actions of the District Attorney's office at the time. They have made no comment about the matter, saying the legal case in question is ongoing.
Polanski admitted unlawful sex with Samantha Geimer, who was 13 at the time, at the home of actor Jack Nicholson in 1977, but fled the US before he was sentenced. The charges against him were never dropped, and the spectre of arrest if he returned to the US has hung over him ever since.
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