Roman Polanski Wants Assurance from Judge That He Won't Serve More Jail Time

March 21, 2017

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Summary: Oscar-winning director and child rapist Roman Polanski is considering returning to the United States.

Hollywood darling and convicted child abuser Roman Polanski wants a legal assurance that he won’t serve any jail time if he returns to the United States. The director famously fled the country to avoid jail time for raping a teenager, and he has not stepped foot on U.S. soil in nearly 40 years.

Polanski, now 83, seeks to return to Hollywood; but according to The Hollywood Reporter, he wants to make sure that a decades-old plea deal with a prior American judge and a Polish Supreme Court will be honored.

In 1978, the director served 42 days in jail for the 1977 rape of a 13-year-old girl. The girl had been at Jack Nicholson’s house under the pretense of doing a photo shoot, and Polanski had slipped the girl a Quaalude before having sex with her.

Polanski had been sentenced to 90 days in psychiatric evaluation for the statutory rape, but Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Laurence Rittenband was considering changing that light sentence to 50 years in prison.

Hearing about the possible change, Polanski fled to Europe while out on probation, and in the late 2000s, he served one year of time in a Swiss prison. Additionally, in his decades away from the U.S. he had battled and successfully fought off American attempts to extradite him.

Even without returning to the U.S., Polanski’s directing career appeared to be unaffected. He has made numerous films with A-list stars, and in 2003, he was honored by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences with a Best Director Oscar for The Pianist. At that awards ceremony, celebrities such as Meryl Streep and Martin Scorcese could be seen giving the absentee director a standing ovation.

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While bigwigs in the entertainment industry may have forgiven or just plain forgotten Polanski’s crime, his attorney wanted to make sure that the legal community did as well. In a Monday hearing, Polanski’s attorney Harland Braun told a judge that the director more than served his time and that the court should “be bound by its promise.”

“The crime he committed is indefensible,” Braun said. “He’s never tried to excuse it.”

Braun asked Judge Scott Gordon to sentence Polanski in absentia, order the district attorney to state its position on whether or not Polanski has served his time, or issue an indicated sentence that will be honored. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Braun did not argue the merits of Polanski’s original case or want to discuss the fairness of Rittenbrand’s sentence.

Deputy D.A. Michele Hanisee does not appear to be welcoming and forging to Polanski like his Hollywood peers.

“This case is 40 years old because the defendant fled,” Hanisee said. She added that she did not want “to give a wealthy celebrity different treatment from any other fugitive.”

Judge Gordon will issue a statement on this case on Monday.