Roman Ploanski has been a fugitive living in France for 30 years. He travels to Switzerland to attend a festival in his honor and gets arrested. What happened?
Was this the first time Polanski traveled outside France? Was it the first time he traveled to Switzerland? If he had traveled to Switzerland before, why hadn’t he been arrested then? What changed?
He has a chalet in Switzerland, but in one of the articles I’ve seen, the D.A.'s office has said that under Swiss extradition law, the requesting country has to provide precise information about where and when the target will be in the country.
There can be no factual answer to this, just speculation.
Polanski has a home in Switzerland. He’s traveled there many times. I don’t believe the U.S. government ever contacted the Swiss authorities before this. An Op-Ed piece in the Times stated that:
The LA D.A.'s office says it was merely a matter of opportunity, knowing exactly where he would be at a certain time.
The speculative part comes from this other Times article.
Last year a documentary, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” by Marina Zenovich filmed original prosecutor David Wells as saying that he coached the judge in the case as to the desired outcome.
Wells has now recanted that interview and claimed that he lied to the filmmaker.
The judge in question is no longer alive.
A filmed admission of misconduct can’t go unnoticed. Law enforcement officials hate to be shown up.
I don’t think we know enough about what’s going on behind the scenes to put two and two together. Wells’ actions are so beyond bizarre that my opinion is we ain’t heard nothing yet.
I gave the only factual answer, the statement from the D.A. Check the threads in GD and elsewhere for more speculation.
To add to the “why now” in the topic line, it has been pointed out that California is effectively bankrupt and the Polanski affair could cost a whole bunch of money that might be better used elsewhere. Convicting celebrities might be attract some bit of positive attention when there is money but come next election a lot of contenders are going to point to the expense.
Polanski has already been convicted. It doesn’t cost anything more to throw him in a state pen. I can think of no better use of money than incarcerating a child rapist.
The claim that “they” had to know an exact time and place to make an arrest sets off my BS alarm.
First of all, it appears that he has traveled extensively over the past 30 years. It’s hard to imagine that each country he traveled to has the same “exact time and place” extradition requirement.
Furthermore, he owns a stinkin’ chalet in Switzerland. How hard would it be to find a cooperative neighbor, shopkeeper, delivery man, etc. to notify the DA’s office when he was in town?
Something else is going on here.
The Swiss Minister of Justice is quoted as saying that if the Swiss authorities had been aware of the times of Polanski’s previous visits, they would have arrested him.
The only part of that article I found credible was this:
I’ll bet he was stunned!
Here’s what I think happened: The Swiss didn’t want to arrest Polanski for whatever reason, and kept giving the excuse that they never knew when he was entering the country. When the Americans found out about the film festival, they call Switzerland’s bluff. The Swiss - wanting to remain a respected member of the international community - had to cooperate at that point.
We’ll see if any of this gets validated in the days to come.
I was suprised how easy it was to pass thru Switzerland last summer while I was riding with a coworker from Germany to Italy. We stopped at the border and my friend got out and showed him his passport and paid a road use tax and we were off. Even though Switzerland isn’t part of the European Union and I am from the States I didn’t have to show anyone any identification. In fact, on the return trip we didn’t stop at all and were just waived thru along with a long line of Italians going to their villas for the weekend.
So in short, the Swiss don’t really care or track peoples comings and goings; Polanski just got cockey and formally replied to an invitation to a party in his honor like common criminals going to those free give aways sponsered by the police. His arrogance did him in. :smack:
From what I hear, Polanski’s lawyers had filed papers requesting dismissal of the charges, which may have pissed off the prosecutor’s office enough to get them working on the extradition again. No idea if this is true or not.
According to
Of course he was stunned!
Sure, he was arrested, charged, and convicted in the U.S. of a felony. Yes, he hightailed it out of the U.S. right before he was sentenced. Sure, the U.S. had asked France and Switzerland for his extradition, But he’s an Artist. Doesn’t that get you a free pass on something like this?
What type of world we live in when a convicted felon can get arrested while he’s on his way to a party to celebrate how wonderful he is?
Just to be clear - I wasn’t suggesting any sympathy towards Polanski, but after 30 years of living the good life after raping a minor, he was probably not expecting this.
The U.S. told Polanski they would arrest him any day from 1978 up until the award ceremony, and it would be a surprise. They arrested him at the awards, and it was a surprise 
The US didn’t arrest the fugitive. Switzerland did.
Switzerland has recently developed an unprecedented sense of cooperation with U.S. law. Earlier this year, they were suddenly willing to hand over information about Americans’ Swiss bank accounts. I suspect that if we knew exactly what had changed their mind about the bank accounts, we might have a good idea why they’ve changed their mind about Polanski.
Actually, there wasn’t an award ceremony. It was a sting operation.
"Hello, Mr. Polanski? Yes, we are a group of European artists who have no links to the U.S. government. And, we want to give you a special lifetime achievement award, and want to present you with some …uh… cufflinks and present you with a special certificate outlining all of your …uh… achievements.
No, it’s no problem. We’ve been wanting to do this for years. Why yes, a whole slew of people will be there waiting for your arrival. We even chartered a special jet just for you."
No-body expects the Swiss Extradition!
I’m betting the CIA has secret photos of Hans-Rudolf Merz & Corina Casanova in compromising positions…
David Wells wasn’t the prosecutor on the case when the alleged coaching happened.
Knowing what I do about the court system I’d personally be incredulous if a judge took marching orders from a prosecutor. My impression is the judge was whipped into a media frenzy and didn’t like the original deal.