D.A. on Polanski: He'll Lose Extradition Fight

Lawyers for Roman Polanski scrambled to evaluate their legal options after the Oscar-winning director was arrested in Switzerland on a 31-year-old arrest warrant for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old.

A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles district attorney’s office said they had requested the extradition, and fully expected Polanski to be sent back.

“He can fight extradition and he’ll lose,” spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons told TheWrap. “His chances are not good. There’s only one issue in extradition -- is person named in the warrant that person. If it is, then he’s extradited."

Lawyers for the director acknowledged they were caught completely caught off guard by the arrest, while a spokesman for Los Angeles Superior Court said that if extradited, Polanski would go straight to sentencing.

"He'd come to the sentencing hearing where he failed to appear 30 years ago," said Alan Parachini, a spokesman for the L.A. court.

Gibbons said the D.A. had been trying to get Polanski extradited for years, but circumstances had never come together. She said the D.A. secured provisional warrants “several times,” including in recent years.  

"We were unaware of any extradition being sought and separate counsel will be retained for those proceedings,” attorneys Douglas Dalton, Chad Hummel and Bart Dalton said in a statement.

Polanski, 76, owns a home in Switzerland but lives mainly in Paris.

He traveled to the country  to collect a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival on Sunday evening, but was arrested on arrival at Zurich airport on Saturday night.

The Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement: “Whether Roman Polanski will be effectively extradited to the U.S.A. or not can be established only after the extradition process judicially has been finalized."

In France, Polanski's home, Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said he "profoundly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already known so many during his life." The minister was "shocked" by the arrest.

In Hollywood, the industry puzzled over the arrest coming at this late date. “I find the whole thing sad all around,” producer Mike Medavoy said Sunday. "I think they should drop the charges and he should come and end all of this.”

Gibbons responded:"The court has always said things cannot be resolved until he makes an appearance before a judge in Los Angeles county. He wants to do it in all different ways. He has to do it this way."

But the news was all the more stunning since the 31-year-old warrant has come under renewed debate with a documentary last year called "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired."

The documentary raised substantive questions about the behavior of the judge, Laurence Rittenband, who was criticized in the film by both prosecution and defense lawyers for being swayed by public opinion and for violating the terms of a plea bargain struck by Polanski before he fled the country.

 

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