Jumping on the Polanski Bandwagon

Earthquakes, a tsunami, and a 32 year old sex scandal involving a Hollywood icon. This is the very definition of a slow news day for us – nobody wants to talk about lateral moves and layoffs this week. However, two tidbits of interest have popped up about the Polanski story that may interest our loyal readers.

Polanski has hired Reid Weingarten as part of his defense team. Weingarten, who is a partner at Steptoe and Johnson, is close friends with Attorney General Eric Holder and his addition to Polanski’s legal team may indicate the beginning of an effort to fight the extradition by challenging it here in the states as well as overseas.

More interesting is a report from the LA Times today claiming that advocacy on Polanski’s behalf by his current legal team from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, spearheaded by Chad Hummel, may be what pushed the LA District Attorney to aggressively seek Polanski’s arrest. In July of this year, Manatt Phelps tried to get the case against Polanski dismissed and buried in those motions was the claim that the prosecution had never tried to have Polanski extradited. That claim has been denied, but the LA Times posits that it may be what spurred the DA in to action.