On the Run

Legal showdown set in Polanski's LA sex case

By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch, Ap Special Correspondent 1 hr 36 mins ago

LOS ANGELES – A film has returned director Roman Polanski to the spotlight, though it's not one of his own making.

The much-anticipated courtroom showdown Tuesday on Polanski's effort to have a 31-year-old sex prosecution against him dismissed was sparked by an HBO documentary.

"Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" aired new information about actions by the now-deceased judge who presided over his case, a scenario which his lawyers say amounted to misconduct.

But the central issue in the hearing will not be the allegations of misconduct but rather the question of whether Polanski's case can be heard out of his presence.

The director has said through his lawyer that he doesn't plan to be at the hearing; in fact, he says he has no plans to ever set foot in the United States again.

If he chose to appear, he likely would be arrested on a fugitive warrant.

The district attorney's office has argued in documents that — as a fugitive from justice — Polanski is not entitled to the processes of the court unless he appears in person to request dismissal.

His lawyer, Chad Hummel, has presented several legal arguments contending that Polanski should be allowed to have his case decided in absentia.

Since filing the request in early December, Hummel has filed many motions, among them a request to have the entire Los Angeles Superior Court disqualified from hearing the case because of bias against Polanski.

Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza, who will hear the matter, ruled that neither he nor any of the judges of his court held any bias against Polanski, a view upheld on appeal.

On Friday, Hummel filed one last motion asking to subpoena three prosecutorial officials, two of whom were involved in the original case, to testify at Tuesday's hearing.

Espinoza took the request under submission and said he would rule Tuesday, but seemed skeptical of calling two of the men who are featured in the documentary. He said their testimony would only duplicate what they said in the film.

But Deputy District Attorney Pat Dixon, who appeared at Friday's brief hearing, argued that because the director refuses to return, "Polanski can't ask this court to do anything."

Polanski, who pleaded guilty to having unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl, fled into exile in France in 1977.

He had spent 42 days in prison in what his lawyers believed was his full sentence under a plea bargain. But a decision by the now deceased judge to add more prison time and require his voluntary deportation prompted him to leave the country.

The documentary on the case suggests behind-the-scenes manipulations which the defense claims amounted to judicial misconduct.

Polanski, now 75, lives in France where his film career has continued to flourish. He received a directing Oscar in absentia for the 2002 movie, "The Pianist." While still working in the United States, he directed such classic films as "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby."

Let Polanski Go!

Polanski victim wants case closed but no prison

By Michelle Nichols
Reuters
Wednesday, June 4, 2008; 9:16 AM

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oscar-winning movie director Roman Polanski should not have to serve time in prison for unlawfully having sex with a 13-year-old girl 30 years ago, the victim now says.

The French-Polish filmmaker fled the United States to France in 1978 before he was sentenced and Samantha Geimer, now 45 years old with three sons, said in an interview she wants the case resolved.

"I don't think he's a danger to society," said Geimer, who settled a confidential civil suit with Polanski more than 10 years ago. "I don't think he needs to be locked up forever and no one has ever come out ever besides me and accused him of anything."

A documentary, "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and will air on U.S. cable channel HBO on Monday, throws the spotlight on the case.

"It was all so overwhelming," said Geimer, who lives in Hawaii and works as a personal assistant and bookkeeper. "I think we just wanted it to be over and sending him to jail was not going to help it be over.

"What happened that night, it's hard to believe, but it paled in comparison to what happened to me in the next year of my life," she said of the media frenzy surrounding the trial, adding that she was relieved when Polanski fled because the media attention died down.

The filmmaker, now 74, was charged with several counts, including rape by use of drugs, but in a deal pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor, a crime committed during a photo session with Geimer. He bolted to France, where he is a citizen and cannot be extradited by the United States, before he was sentenced.

'HE'S SORRY'

Polanski, who directed "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown," already had spent 42 days in a prison for a psychiatric evaluation before his sentencing.

"I think he's sorry, I think he knows it was wrong," Geimer said. "He should have been given time served ... he needs to make a deal to be treated fairly when he gets back here and with his celebrity I think that's going to be hard."

At the time of the court case, psychiatric experts did not consider Polanski a sexual predator and both the defense and prosecution believed probation would be sufficient punishment.

Documentary director Marina Zenovich tracked down Polanski's lawyer, Geimer, her attorney, law enforcement officials, film industry colleagues and reporters who covered the case, among others to dig deeper into the case.

They all revealed troubling behavior by the judge, now deceased, who was so driven by media coverage that he kept a scrapbook of clippings. The film implied that Polanski fled because he feared unfair treatment amid the media frenzy.

Polanski, whose pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, was murdered by followers of Charles Manson in 1969, rebuilt his life and career in France and in 2003 won a best director Oscar for "The Pianist."

He declined to be interviewed by Zenovich for the documentary, which used archival interview footage.

"It was 30 years ago now," said Geimer, adding that she had spoken about it so often she was emotionally detached. "It's an unpleasant memory ... (but) I can live with it."

(Editing by Mark Egan and Bill Trott)

Polanski SOLD

HBO inks U.S. rights to 'Polanski' doc
By Gregg Goldstein and Steven Zeitchik

After an extended and mutating round of dealmaking, HBO picked up all U.S. rights for Marina Zenovich's documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired." The network's docu division will handle the Sundance title's cable bow, with a theatrical release still to be determined. The feature tracks the iconic director's statutory rape trial and urges a second look at the particulars of the case. TWC bought all rights excluding North America and U.K. TV on Saturday. The deal closed after 2 a.m. Sunday morning. In the final round, bidding came down to HBO, ThinkFilm and Roadside Attractions, with Netflix, A+E and the History Channel attempting various partnerships with theatrical distributors. Since its debut Friday night, "Polanski" was one of the only films to attain universal praise at this year's festival. The other was Nanette Burstein's docu "American Teen," which had top bidders awake until around 4 a.m. Sunday. The sellers and buyers decided to sleep on it and resume talks after sunrise. Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Lila Yacoub produced "Polanski." Cinetic Media and Josh Braun at Submarine Entertainment repped the filmmakers in the deal.

Roman and the Rape

Getting to the bottom of the Polanski case
Why did Roman Polanski flee the country? A dogged filmmaker attempts to find out.
By Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

January 17, 2008

IT all came together for Marina Zenovich, director of "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," during one of numerous conversations with Polanski's agent Jeff Berg about the filmmaker's possible participation in her documentary. "Berg said, 'Why are you making this film, everyone knows this story.' And I said, 'No, you know this story, but everyone doesn't know it.' "

Polanski ended up not participating, but Zenovich turned out to be right. Her compelling, smartly told film, debuting Friday night in Sundance's documentary competition, takes the seemingly familiar story of the circumstances surrounding Polanski's fleeing the country after pleading guilty to having sex with a minor and tells it with such intelligence, dispassion and detail that it's like we've never heard it before. Which is exactly the point.

"Everyone thinks Polanski fled because he was afraid of going to jail, but people don't know the real story," the engaging, articulate Zenovich says. "That can only be told by the people who experienced it." She quotes David Dalton, Polanski's attorney, who says, "Only three people know the story and one of them is dead."

The dead man is the judge in the case, Laurence J. Rittenband, who died in 1993. As described by both Dalton, who has never before spoken publicly about this, and his opposite number, prosecutor Roger Gunson, Rittenband engaged in actions that would have turned Perry Mason's hair gray. "I remain astounded," is how Dalton puts it. "This case will never leave me."

Astounded or not, Dalton was quite reluctant to participate in Zenovich's film, as was almost everyone else. "This was a very long process, nobody wanted to talk about this," Zenovich says wearily of the literal years of importuning it took to get everyone on camera. Not only were people like Dalton and close Polanski friend Andrew Braunsberg difficult to convince, they refused to sign releases for their interview footage until they saw the finished film.

Zenovich, whose previous docs include "Independent's Day" and "Who Is Bernard Tapie?," succeeded because "you can see that I'm disarming, genuine and I have good intentions. It can be endearing that you're trying so hard. I never give up."

Zenovich's interest in Polanski was piqued by a 2003 Los Angeles Times piece that talked about "the 30 years of limbo" the case had caused for the director. Then she saw Lawrence Silver, who represented the girl in the case, say on TV that " 'the day Polanski fled the country was a sad day for the American judicial system.' That didn't make sense to me, I wanted to understand why he said it."

Gradually, Zenovich became consumed by the lives of the story's characters, including 54-year-old Judge Rittenband, who loved celebrity cases and turned out to have a 20-year-old mistress. But she was especially struck by Polanski, just a few years past the murder of his wife Sharon Tate, and the girl in question, Samantha Geimer, who is interviewed on camera about the case. "They've been prisoners of this story," she says, "but the facts are wrong."

What is most interesting about "Wanted and Desired" is that prosecutor Gunson and defense attorney Dalton, as well as Geimer's attorney Silver, all agree that Judge Rittenband acted improperly, attempting to stage-manage events in a way that was out of legal bounds.

"Despite what he did, Polanski was screwed over by the judge, he fled because the judge pulled the rug out from under him," Zenovich says. "It was like Polanski was caught in one of his movies, this kind of stuff isn't supposed to happen, everyone was shocked that a judge would behave like this." As Polanski himself puts it in an archival clip, "I was a mouse made sport of by an abominable cat."

With its spotlight clearly on the judicial aftermath, "Wanted and Desired" does not focus on what happened between Polanski and the girl past putting both their statements to the police on the screen as type. That sex took place is not in dispute, and Zenovich, who says "if it was a violent rape I wouldn't have made this film," calls it "a tragedy for all involved. It's not for me to judge."

After literally years of trying, Zenovich did finally meet Polanski for an off-camera lunch in Paris near the end of filming. "He said it would look like self-promotion to be in the film," the director says, but the event was hardly a waste. "After having someone in your head and in archival footage for over three years, that meeting was satisfying, to say the least."