(”YEAH, I HIT THAT.”)
It isn’t really news that Roman Polanski’s victim, Samantha Geimer, is lobbying for the case to be dismissed, since she’s said from the very beginning that she just wanted it to be over as quickly as possible (insert tasteless joke here). Which has worked out really well, don’t you think? The latest news is that her lawyer sent a letter to the California appeals court urging them to dismiss the case.
The filing with the Second District Court of Appeal on Friday said Geimer and Attorney Lawrence Silver have received nearly 500 media calls seeking comment since Polanski was arrested in Switzerland on Sept. 26.
Geimer, who lives in Hawaii, is being stalked by journalists from numerous international news outlets and has received interview requests from Larry King and Oprah Winfrey, the filing said.
“The pursuit has caused her to have health-related issues,” it said. “The pursuit has caused her performance at her job to be interfered with and has caused the understandable displeasure of her employer and the real possibility that Samantha could lose her job.”
The filing seeks dismissal of the case against Polanski and ends with a request: “Leave her alone.” [Yahoo]
I understand her wanting to be left alone, but losing her job? Your boss would have to be a pretty huge d-ck to use this against you. “Hey, Samantha, are you gonna finish these proposal requests like I asked you a week ago, or are you too busy getting raped? Jesus, Samantha, did you misfile all these reports? What are you, on quaaludes?”
The U.S. formally filed a request for Roman Polanski’s extradition today, and only a whole month after they requested his arrest. The Swiss authorities, who, to reiterate, arrested Polanski a month ago, will now be holding a hearing at an unspecified future date to decide whether to send him back to Los Angeles, even though, again, I’m just reiterating the facts here, him being wanted in Los Angeles was the entire reason they arrested him in the first place.
If extradition is approved, Polanski may appeal the decision to Switzerland’s top criminal court and, theoretically, to the Federal Supreme Court.
That means the could remain in a Swiss jail for months more of legal wrangling, even though legal experts say he has little chance of avoiding a return to the U.S. after 31 years as a fugitive.
The maximum sentence Polanski can receive in California is two years, the Justice Ministry said.
“In the American case, he declared himself guilty of having sexual relations with a minor,” spokesman Folco Galli told Europe-1 radio. “According to American law currently in force, the maximum penalty for the crime in question is two years in prison.”
Galli said the sentence couldn’t be longer because Polanski could only be punished for the crime that is the basis of his extradition. He didn’t say specifically whether Polanski was being pursued for fleeing justice in 1978, and Los Angeles authorities couldn’t immediately be reached for verification. [Variety]
Of course they couldn’t be reached. You probably have to fax them a formal request to be reached, then they schedule a hearing at an unspecified date on whether to approve that request, and after a few weeks of the lawyers playing XBox and eating Cheetos out of their briefcases, they decide whether to comment. This is just how the legal system works.
(”SAVE ME A HIGH LIFE, ASSWIPES.”)
Roman Polanski is currently in Swiss prison waiting for US lawyers to file a “firm extradition request.” (so far, all they’ve done is passive-aggressively hint drop, apparently). If he decides to challenge extradition, the process could keep him in jail another year. Now, one of his lawyers says he might just come back to the U.S.
For the first time, one Mr. Polanski’s lawyers, Georges Kiejman, floated on Wednesday the idea of a possible return in an interview with the radio station Europe 1. “If this process drags on, it is not completely impossible that Roman Polanski could choose to go finally to explain himself in the United States where the arguments in his favor exist,” he said.
“Not completely impossible?” Jesus, how long does this take? The guy’s been in jail a month. How many GD hours can you bill over a yes or no question?
Roman Polanski was denied bail for the second time by a Swiss court today after pledging his holiday home in Switzerland as collateral and proposing electronic monitoring as a way to ensure he wouldn’t flee.
The court said Polanski was still too much a flight risk. Something Polanski’s French lawyer Herve Temime fervently denies.
“What everyone forgets is that if Roman Polanski fled 32 years ago, it was because he felt betrayed by the American justice system,” Temime told Swiss television. “What one forgets is that 32 years ago, no one in the world wanted him to go to jail, not even for one day. For the past 32 years he has demonstrated to what extent he is not a danger to anyone, to what extent he is not a ’sex criminal’ as one often hears.”
“So let me get this straight: your argument is that your client spent the last 32 years on the run simply because he had his feelings hurt, and now because of that, you say we should let him out again? We do not know how it works in France, Mr. Temime, but this court does not award ‘points for sheer balls.’”
Roman Polanski has been transferred from prison to a Zurich hospital for undisclosed reasons. According to People, it’s the second time the 76-year-old has been hospitalized since his arrest.
Folco Galli, spokesman for Switzerland’s Federal Office of Justice, declined to comment on whether the film-maker had been moved to hospital, or on the state of his health.
“He is still in detention. If necessary he has all the medical care (needed). It can be in prison or in hospital, in general,” he told Reuters.
U.S. authorities have up to 60 days to make a firm extradition request. U.S. judicial sources have said the complex extradition process could take years if Polanski challenges it. [Reuters]
I don’t get it. Does he really think he’s going to get that much prison time in the U.S. that he’s willing to spend this much time in European jail while the process plays out? Just give it up already, you’re a disgrace to rapists everywhere.
