here is a summary of the victims testimony, I do agree Roman is guilty, of sexual intercourse with a minor. I do believe what the victim said recentlythat the judge was more concerned with making an example of him.

I think many people miss the point and grossly exagerrate the events of what actually happened the night he commited the crime.

mind you, i did summarize but i'm no spin doctor.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskib1.html



the victims mother did not object to a 40 year old man taking pictures of her daughter. Her mother was not present at the photoshoots even though one was just up the hill from the victims house. The victim went to a second photoshoot with Polanski despite her posing topless for him during the first shoot. She did not tell anyone he made her pose topless the first shoot either, not even her mother. When polanski was at Nocholsons house with the girl,a lady let them in, Polanski pulled out a bottle of chamage, asked "should I open it" to the victim who responded "i don't care" he then asked the same lady if it was alright, and she said yes. the maide, did not stop him and even drank a glass herself.

Polanski goes inside, calls the girls mother, the girl talks to her mother, her mother asks if she is alright, victim says YES, mother asks if she wants to be picked up, victim said NO.

Polanski takes out a container, fully of pills asks the girl "is this a qualude?" and she says "Yes". (she later admits to have taken qualudes before she met polanski, of her own free will and to also getting drunk of her own free will.)

He then takes on himself, offers her one, then she declines, he says "Oh" she then CHANGES HER MIND and takes one, of her own free will.

yes he did some shady things like ask her to take off her underwear and she did those things, she did not refuse to. she kept drinking champagne, it wasn't forced on her.

after describing in detail what he did to her (i'm not going to sum it up for the sake of decency, it gets pretty detailed) but she says things like "i kept saying, no stop, infrequently.

she also says "i can barely remember anything that happened'

and

"I wasn't really fighting because no one was there and i had no place to go".


she had sex twice before the Polanski icnident, so the news networks saying it was "destroying a childs innocence and virginity" (i jsut saw a lady say that a moment ago) are wrong. Is she really innocent? having been on drugs and drunk and have had sex before?

someone came home to Nicholsons house, knocked on the room they were in, he opened the door and addressed her, THE VICTIM HAD PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITY TO SCREAM or atlert the woman of what was happening but didn't

after the sex, she went in the bathroom, got dressed, COMBED HER HAIR, passed the woman who was there. said hello to the woman. and went and sat in the car. i emphasize her combing her hair because, whould a rape victim really think about coming her hair immediatly afterwards? then pass up the opportunity to tell someone what happened? she then waits in the car for polanski instead of running away, he stays in the house andtalks to the woman.

i'm not defending polanski because he is "an amazing director" i don't like his films aside from Repulsion, The Tennant and The Pianist. I'm defending him because I believe this is a miss carriage of justice. Where were the angry people calling for his arrest these past few decades? the fuss about the case now isn't about the crime. it's about the conditions of his arrest and that is the point of the petition.

not to mention this case should have been thrown out, the moment the VICTIM moved for a dismissall AND HAD ACCEPTED A SETTLEMENT FROM POLANSKI.

with all this sudden drama, i don't think i will be using this site anymore. it should be about Wes films, the ART the man creates not his personal life and decision to sign the petition that has many of you upset and angry at him.

This is a 30 YEAR OLD CASE because Polanski fled. that in and of itself is a crime. Just because he ran away for 30 years doesn't mean its too old of a case for him to be tried. Because he ran away this case should be tried.

I don't get how this case should just go away because "it happened so long ago." That makes no sense.

Did he purposely avoid traveling to any country that might extradite him to the United States? He has traveled outside of France, I think. That's my confusion, as far as my question about the timing. Why now?

(Not that the case is old and that we should forget about it.)

We have decided to remove the front page story. This thread is far more civil.

I don't want to dwell on this stuff much further. It's a messy case, and it's clear on the internet that a lot of people can't talk about it civilly.

But goodness does Jitterbugg's post read like a long list "she deserved it" excuses. Oh, her mother put her in this situation. She voluntarily took alcohol and drugs. She had sex before.

A 13 year old cannot legally consent to sex with a 44 year old, and anyone who is impaired by drugs cannot consent to sex either. That's the end of it, as far as the rape goes. Her state of mind after the fact -- that she combed her hair, that she didn't alert someone immediately -- is irrelevant. Do you have any idea how many rape victims don't report the rape?

Polanski did travel to other countries its just that the United States were not prepared apprehend him when he did travel to other countries, and contrary to popular belief they did not use the lifetime award to draw Polanski there the US just learned about the trip and the US took the proper steps to arrest him

Sorry to hear that the Jitterbugg feels this way. This has become a pretty public story as many celebrity incidents do, positive or negative. Anyway, the Yankee Racers have always had interest in the world's more fabulous filmmakers, and Polanski has been noted by Wes on several occasions as a heavy influence. Especially now that Wes has signed the public petition in support of Polanski, discussion is going to happen.

By the way, I really appreciated your rundown of the details. I learned a lot and I was able to dispel some of my doubts about Polanski's case.

just registered to say i loved 'the royal tenenbaums' AND 'chinatown' and both were major inspirations to me in film school... but i am incredibly disappointed in wes anderson for signing the polanski petition.

child rape is inexcusable, i don't care if you're in the goddamn artistic genius club or not. no one gets to live by different rules of basic fucking human decency because they made a good movie once or twice.

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