JUDGE JEANINE PIRRO: The Debate Over Roman Polanski

 

The Debate Over Roman Polanski

 

JUDGE JEANINE PIRRO former District Attorney and County Court Judge, elected politician, legal commentator, best-selling author and frequent legal contributor on the “Today” and “Larry King Live”shows, champions women’s & human rights.

 

It was a sex crime and scandal heard around the world.  Famed film director Roman Polanski held the world’s heart strings when his beautiful actress wife Sharon Tate was brutally murdered by the Manson family.  Then, a 360 degree turn from grieving husband whose wife and unborn child were slaughtered to  headlines that he was accused of raping a 13-year old girl (Samantha Geimer), who he had asked to photograph for a French magazine.  The scenario went like this: Polanski arranged two photo shoots with the girl: One near her home, outdoors, and with trees and flowers; the other at actor Jack Nicholson’s home in L.A., with alcohol, drugs, oral sex, rape, sodomy and her naked in the jacuzzi.  Polanski was arrested and charged with rape, sodomy, child molestation and giving drugs to a minor.  He managed to worm out of charges that any other man would have gone to the pokey for and—with no get-out-of-jail-free-card. Polanski was allowed to plead guilty to ‘unlawful sex with a minor’ and still that wasn’t good enough for him.  He fled the United States before being sentenced, and has been a fugitive from justice for 32 years. Finally arrested (at age 76) in Switzerland, he is now asking for mercy, and that the charges be dropped.

ST: The case has some Hollywood celebs  screaming “not guilty” but the rest of world is looking for justice for victims.

JP:  This is no different than any child abuse case with a pedophile who raped a child.  He could have spent 50 years in prison.  To those who say he should not be held accountable, I say, hogwash!  This guy can’t say, “I’m not guilty”  he has already pled guilty!  He thinks the 45 days he spent at the Chino State prison under- going a psychiatric evaluation is sufficient as time served.  He fled jurisdiction afraid that the judge would sentence him more harshly.  He could have stayed,  done a plea withdrawn and started from square one.  But he wasn’t man enough to do that.  He put his tail between his legs and ran.  Now he wants mercy he never gave his victim.

Since Polanski has been on the run his life and movie career have continued to soar; in 2002 he won an Oscar for a movie he directed, “The Pianist” and was on his way to the Zurich Film Festival to pick up an honorary award when police nabbed him at the airport.

French-born Polanski moved to Poland with his parents as a child, then watched them arrested by Nazi’s, and his mother die in Auschwitz Nazi death camp.  He lived in the Krakow’s Jewish ghetto before escaping.  Supporters say the trauma of his childhood and surviving the Holocaust left a dark print on his mental state and because of it… leniency should be a consideration.

ST: What about the fact that victim has long ago forgiven him?

JP: The LAPD has sought his arrest in no less than nine countries.  People say if the victim has forgiven him and supports a dismissal why can’t the court system.  But this isn’t about her and him—and by the way he paid her $500,000 in a civil settlement suit—this is the criminal justice system; the State of California vs. one-Roman Polanski.  He has pled “guilty” to a crime; he is a fugitive from justice, he has established himself as a flight risk; he is a convicted pedophile.   

ST: What about the celebrity support?

JP: I think they have underscored the difference between the morals of every- day America and that Polanski is a convicted pedophile, who shouldn’t be exonerated because he is a great director.  I’ve read the transcripts from the Grand Jury testimony.  Nothing gives anyone the right to rape a child and make no mistake—this was rape.  Polanski like every other defendant could have had his original plea withdrawn.  Because the victim has forgiven him…well I’m sorry…forgiveness is for God.  People identify celebrities with roles they play, but that is not who they are in real life.  Celebrities start to believe the hype that they are above the rest of us,  should be treated differently and don’t have to abide by the same rules as the rest of us.  They are no different than we are.       

ST: What’s next if he returns to the U.S.?

JP: He was given the plea bargain of the century because of his celebrity.  A 6-count indictment was reduced to unlawful sex with a minor.  He can move to withdraw his plea and start the case over.  But as it stands—he is convicted and is coming back for sentencing.

 

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By Suzanne Takowsky