I'll assume those pictures were taken when he left the country before his return to serve 90 days in Chino for a psyche evaluation. Here's a good article on his arrest. It seems as though the old adage is true.... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090927/ap_on_en_mo/eu_switzerland_polanski

I heard Whoopi, and a few other celebs, talk about how in other countries things are different with kids.

I say Whop[pi's comments too and I almost threw up.

Whoppi is an idiot, she knows NOTHING about the law and in fact does not even have a college degree.

For someone as stoopid as her to say on National TV that it is OK for a 43 y/o man to use drugs to incapacitate a 13 year old GIRL and have sex with her is from another friggen planet.

Whoppi the Moron also said it was "consensual". I hate to break the news to Johnnie Cochrane Jr., aka Whoppi, but 13 year old's CANNOT consent to sex, as a matter of law. The 13 year old's parents cannot consent to letting someone have sex with their 13 year old daughter AS A MATTER OF LAW. Where Whoppi dreamed up this nonsense is a mystery.

Hit the link I posted to the Grand Jury testimony and read what the 13 y/o girl said-it will make you sick.

Hate to break it to you Josh but Polanski DID serve his sentence. He fled to France because the judge and prosecuter was conspiring to royally f*** him. As someone who shouts from the rooftops about the law like you do,you should also appreciate the fact that the original sentence was upheld. You can't have it both ways. You either respect the laws of our land or you don't.

I was just reading about a movement afoot in some European countries to lower the age of consent. It wasn't clear from the story whether this would only apply to minors having sex with each other, or whether it would also apply to one having sex with an adult. But Polanski is probably saying "See, I was just ahead of my time".

I heard Whoopi, and a few other celebs, talk about how in other countries things are different with kids. And that means very little to me with this case, as that wasn't the law at the time. And no matter how much they lower it, I seriously doubt it will become 13 that's the age of consent.

I'd like to tell Whoopi, and the other idiots that feel this way...that in France they may let kids drink wine with dinner. But that doesn't mean someone from France, that was in this country, getting kids drunk, would be the same thing. Bottom line is, follow the laws in this country if you're in this country.

And it baffles me that all these Hollywood types will support this guy, just because they appreciate his art. Even Tarantino, in Basterds, had a line that went something like "In France, we appreciate our directors" or some such thing. It's insane.

Ya know...I was thinking about it. And maybe Polanski has been thru enough. After all, he's had to spend the last 30 years in France!

Why is this even in the news? It seems to me that the U.S. & Swiss authorities worked out some sort of political deal not unlike the Scotland/Lockerbie bomber oil deal. This whole thing has gone from a police/judicial matter to a political hot potato. The guy's 76 years old. He'll meet his judge soon enough. And don't get me started on the corruption of the prosecuter and judge in his case. I'd have probably flown the coop as well.

Polanski needs to come back and clear his name by finishing his sentence. The judicial and proscutorial miconduct is well documented and I am postiive he will be sentenced to time served, or little jail time.

And he needs to do some jail time (he is in jail right now as we speak) because sex with a 13 year old girl demands it.

As for some the celebs that are standing up for him-I dont have a problerm with them backing him-if they woudl ONLY keep their mouths shut because the second it opens they prove they have the brain power of circus chimps. Debra Winger wss on TV today saying the chagre is 30 years old and over an done with except for a "minor technicality"....LOL....yes, doing the jail sentence is a "minor technicality"....!!

Yeah, I heard about the testimony and what that girl said happen. It hardly sounds like it was consensual, not to mention...as you just said...EVEN IF IT WAS...that's exactly why they have statutory rape laws on the books. So an adult doesn't trick or coerce some 12-year-year "kid" into having a sexual relationship with them.

BTW-Polanski's conduct was dispicable-and it can be read here;

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.html

How is it that the American public wants the head of a producer who commited statutory rape 32 years ago but allows Michael Vick to get his job back because"we're a nation of 2nd chances"?

PP-everyone deserves a second chance....that is how I feel and that is how most of America feels.

How much, or how big, of a second chance is open to debate.

Vick, I think he is very remorseful about his conduct-but it is hard to look at a guy like him knowing the things he did to innocent animals.

Pete, it's not so much that "everyone deserves a second chance" as much as...VICK DID JAIL TIME! Polanski never did his sentence. He simply fled the country.

And, I'd love to ask Polanski...if they found nazis that tortured his family...but they were 76, and living in some other country, should they be brought to justice? I'm guessing he'd say they should be jailed, and rot in jail. So...I'd ask him why the legal system should be different for him.

Pete, from what I remember about the case (from seeing the documentary last year), was that the judge had told him if he did 45 years in this mental institution, that would be it. They'd say he was sane, and he'd be released.

Then he went to England (maybe it was Germany), and photos surfaced of him partying in nightclubs with women. And I believe he started up an affair with a 15-year-old. This got people so outraged by the deal the judge had going with him.

So, the judge decided after this 45 days, that he'd sentence him to some time (which wasn't what he agreed with Polanski). So, Roman fled.

Here's the problem with all of this. If this was truely the case, Polanski's lawyers should've said "Nothing to worry about. We'll appeal this, and the judge will be in so much trouble."

You don't decide you don't like the sentence or how it's going to go down, so you'll flee the country.

This is the same type of goofy logic people used about that woman living here that escaped the prison in Michigan in the early 70s. Sure, it was "just" a drug charge and the sentence was rather steep for such a crime (although it was heroin...and she was working for a big time drug dealer). But you don't escape from prison, or flee the country, because you don't like the sentence.

Now, maybe Polanski shouldn't have to face the previous charges that he ALREADY pled guilty to. But, he should now pay the piper for his fleeing the country.

And I've love to ask Debra Winger what she would think if her 13-year-old daughter was drugged and raped by a 40 year old man, what that sentence should be. Or, when these teachers sleep with kids, why they all get so up in arms over it. Should rules be different for brilliant filmmakers, then they are for teachers and regular folks?

And I thought that only in Hollywood would you find those who see this perverted baby raper as a "victim". Boy, was I ever mistaken. I guess pervert sympathizing idiots can be found anywhere if you look under enough rocks.

This just in (which I'm guessing could easily be made into a Polanski joke)....

Woody Allen is one of the Hollywood idiots defending Polanski saying he should go free. Yeah, Woody, it's probably best that you keep quiet on cases like this. You had taken nude photos of an underage girl, that was the adopted daughter of your wife/long time girlfriend.

When you agree to a plea bargain, they tell you up front that the judge is not bound by it, he can decide he doesn't like it and sentence you to whatever he wants. It doesn't usually happen. If it did no one would ever agree to one. But the judge has that leeway for cases such as this.

I'm still not quite sure why this is coming up now. Roman hops back and forth from France to Switzerland quite regularly. He has a chalet there. Couldn't the LA prosecutors have shown up almost anytime between now and 30 years ago? What's up with that? My theory is that with Michael Jackson dead and the economy really hurting the Hollywood TV helicopter industry, that they needed a really good high profile trial, so the judges and prosecutors in Hollywood, got together over Trader Joe's blintzes and Starbucks Cafe Freddos and decided that they had to have something going on, and since John Phillips was dead, they couldn't go after him. While they sat there contemplating the whole the dilemma, one of them pulled out his Swiss Army knife to cut that last tofutti filled blintz in two, and probably Judge Ito, or someone else said, "Hey! I have an idea!" And now here we are with a big new high profile pedophile case on our hands. TV news stations are reserving the helicopters as we speak.

That said, I hope they use the army knife's tiny toothpick and the corkscrew on him. I hope they make Roman realize that he should have stuck around for that 48 days he had left to serve and maybe now he won't have find out what a dirty cell next door to Manson is like. Steve Lopez of the LA Times had a great piece in yesterday's paper detailing the court records of the girl's testimony. Hideous, what Roman did to her--oral, ANAL, and just plain ordinary sex on a 13-year-old?? (Sorry, Josh, I'm not as polite as you with the euphemisms). I'm glad they finally got him, I'm sorry he's had a rough life, but that never excuses someone doing something hideous to someone else, in fact it should make him think twice. I'm sure it was the girl's own Auschwitz.

If I had not had my Swiss Army knife taken away at airport security, I would take the miniature spoon and carve out the itsy bitsy raisin of a heart that Roman has.

The above post goes down as the post of the year. Bravo!

Nice theory on the high profile case. From what I understand, they tried to get Roman a few times, and they weren't able to. So, they saw this opportunity and jumped on it.

I heard KFIs afternoon radio show (john and jeff, or whatever their names are), reading the transcripts of what that girl said. And, Whoopi was wrong. She said it was "consensual" (even though she doesn't realize...if the girl is under 18, and the guy is over 18...that's why they have statutory rape laws, because a child can't consent to having sex with an adult). But she kept telling him no. And, she said she was afraid to do anything, because he was an adult and nobody else was at the home.

On a funny side note, I've heard a few comedians and TV shows say that it was a set-up. Jimmy Kimmel said they told Roman he was going to get a Soul Train award, and when he showed up, they arrested him.

UPDATE: He was denied bail, because he's deemed a flight risk. Awesome.

When you agree to a plea bargain, they tell you up front that the judge is not bound by it, he can decide he doesn't like it and sentence you to whatever he wants. It doesn't usually happen.

By rickeysays

rickeysays has been down this road before......

The fact is you make the deal contingent on the sentence agreed to, if the judge is NOT going to play ball with the plea then you go to trial or work a new deal. That way if the judge does not want to play ball you go to trial-that is how it works rickey, only an idiot representing themselves would go into a plea where the judge could blow the deal and you had no out.

A perfect example of this happened last week in OC, where the founder of Broadcom-Samueli- had reached a plea deal that required no jail time, the judge said he wasn't playing ball and that there had to be jail time with any plea taken-the guy withdrew his plea and can now either go to trial or do a plea that includes jail time. His choice.