Strange Timing & Motive In Polanski Arrest

[David Guyatt]

It seems very curious that this allegation has come so late in the day... it's not as if she didn't know that Polanski had been recharged with the 1977 abuse? This seems to play into the hands of the LA prosecutor?

[Peter Lemkin]

The claim is that Polanski is a serial abuser.

The original American charge was for sodomy of a minor.

Charlotte Lewis now claims that Polanski had abused her "in the worst possible way" in Paris when she was 16.

British actor claims Roman Polanski sexually abused her at 16

Charlotte Lewis makes allegations to support charges in US

The legal problems of the film director Roman Polanski, who is currently under house arrest in his Swiss chateau awaiting extradition to the US charged with raping a 13-year-old girl three decades ago, thickened yesterday when a British actor claimed he had sexually abused her in the 1980s when she was 16 years old.

Charlotte Lewis, now 42, appeared at the office of her lawyer, Gloria Allred, in Los Angeles to put to reporters the allegation that Polanski had abused her "in the worst possible way" in Paris. She gave no details, and no evidence was provided to support the accusation.

But Allred said that her client wanted to present the allegations in order to show the US courts that the charges Polanski is currently facing – that he drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl in Jack Nicholson's house in LA in 1977 – were not isolated.

Lewis, who appeared in Polanski's film Pirates in 1986 – four years after the alleged assault was alleged to have taken place – read a statement at a news conference and refused to answer questions. "He took advantage of me and I have lived with the effects of his behaviour ever since it occurred. All I want is justice," she said.

LA police confirmed to Associated Press that Lewis had been interviewed by their department, though no formal investigation has yet begun.

Polanski, the director of such Hollywood classics as Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby, has been in legal limbo since September when a US warrant for his arrest was issued after he travelled to Switzerland to receive an award at a film festival. He faces charges that he gave Quaaludes and champagne to the 13-year-old in 1977 then raped her, having pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. But he fled before sentencing.

This week the LA judge who is hearing the Polanski case turned down a request from his lawyers to publish secret testimony in the case. The defence said that would show misconduct by the judge, now dead, who had handled the case.

Polanski's legal team said they were unaware of the allegations from Lewis.

Lewis also appeared in the 1986 movie The Golden Child and had small roles in other films and television shows.

Allred is known for taking on controversial cases. She recently represented Rachel Uchitel, one of the women involved with the golfer Tiger Woods.

At the Cannes film festival yesterday, the actor Michael Douglas said he would not sign a petition in support of Polanski – posted on a website overseen by French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy – because Polanski "did break the law".

Gee...wonder who paid her....or prodded her to come forward all these years later.....the usual treatment for those who stand up to the PTB.....

[Charles Drago]

"Prodded" her???

[Dawn Meredith]

The claim is that Polanski is a serial abuser.

The original American charge was for sodomy of a minor.

Charlotte Lewis now claims that Polanski had abused her "in the worst possible way" in Paris when she was 16.

British actor claims Roman Polanski sexually abused her at 16

Charlotte Lewis makes allegations to support charges in US

The legal problems of the film director Roman Polanski, who is currently under house arrest in his Swiss chateau awaiting extradition to the US charged with raping a 13-year-old girl three decades ago, thickened yesterday when a British actor claimed he had sexually abused her in the 1980s when she was 16 years old.

Charlotte Lewis, now 42, appeared at the office of her lawyer, Gloria Allred, in Los Angeles to put to reporters the allegation that Polanski had abused her "in the worst possible way" in Paris. She gave no details, and no evidence was provided to support the accusation.

But Allred said that her client wanted to present the allegations in order to show the US courts that the charges Polanski is currently facing – that he drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl in Jack Nicholson's house in LA in 1977 – were not isolated.

Lewis, who appeared in Polanski's film Pirates in 1986 – four years after the alleged assault was alleged to have taken place – read a statement at a news conference and refused to answer questions. "He took advantage of me and I have lived with the effects of his behaviour ever since it occurred. All I want is justice," she said.

LA police confirmed to Associated Press that Lewis had been interviewed by their department, though no formal investigation has yet begun.

Polanski, the director of such Hollywood classics as Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby, has been in legal limbo since September when a US warrant for his arrest was issued after he travelled to Switzerland to receive an award at a film festival. He faces charges that he gave Quaaludes and champagne to the 13-year-old in 1977 then raped her, having pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. But he fled before sentencing.

This week the LA judge who is hearing the Polanski case turned down a request from his lawyers to publish secret testimony in the case. The defence said that would show misconduct by the judge, now dead, who had handled the case.

Polanski's legal team said they were unaware of the allegations from Lewis.

Lewis also appeared in the 1986 movie The Golden Child and had small roles in other films and television shows.

Allred is known for taking on controversial cases. She recently represented Rachel Uchitel, one of the women involved with the golfer Tiger Woods.

At the Cannes film festival yesterday, the actor Michael Douglas said he would not sign a petition in support of Polanski – posted on a website overseen by French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy – because Polanski "did break the law".

Gee...wonder who paid her....or prodded her to come forward all these years later.....the usual treatment for those who stand up to the PTB.....

Peter: I echo what Jan wrote early on in this thread. Perhaps this new woman is not telling the truth, but to just assume she is lying is blaming the victim...Child molesters do not stop with one, not ever. And now they kill thier victims, like that pig in Florida who buried alive that beautiful little girl. After holding her hostage and raping her for days in his mother's double-wide. It will cost the tax payers millions as this is a death penalty case. And he is indigent.
I will be so glad to retire from criminal law and just do juvenile and child protective services. Alas, in this economy, that day is not close.
Dawn

[Dawn Meredith]

"Prodded" her???

[Helen Reyes]

It's starting to make sense thanks to Carsten. Some new prosecutor in LA is making a name. Whether the new charges are true or not, who knows, they might be, but it seems likely the DA in LA unearthed it. Dawn's right about the child molestor's MO of course, they never stop at one victim. Then again, 16 isn't completely a child. As for prodding, it sounds like a minor actress (?), no pun intended, is also seeking a bit of media attention to get some better name recognition.

[Helen Reyes]

In re cleaning out the row:

Dennis Hopper has been hospitalized with "flu-like symptoms."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/30...04677.html

Dennis Hopper is dead.

[Keith Millea]

Ride on Easy Rider,Ride On........:wavey:

"Easy Rider":Nicholson and Hopper on Freedom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHd6m_cir...re=related

[Jan Klimkowski]

Dawn's right about the child molestor's MO of course, they never stop at one victim. Then again, 16 isn't completely a child. As for prodding, it sounds like a minor actress (?), no pun intended, is also seeking a bit of media attention to get some better name recognition.

The new "victim" was 16 at the time, but the "actress" that Polanski buggered in Jack Nicholson's house, after giving her Quaaludes, a CNS depressant, was 13 years old.

Polanski ran with Robert Evans, who is a central figure in Maury Terry's work on the Son of Sam, Manson 2, etc.

Polanski's drug dealing extended family had rather too intimate contact with Manson 1.

See here for starters:

http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/...stcount=33

[Helen Reyes]

Thanks, Jan. I think I read through that thread before but will recheck.

Meanwhile, this struck me as pretty interesting, Polanski as K. By a Czech no less.

http://www.haaretz.com/haaretz-authors-e...i-1.293647

Published 00:44 02.06.10
Latest update 00:44 02.06.10
Free Roman Polanski!

Although I do not know the director personally, Roman Polanski has been on my mind more than any other person for the past eight months.

By Milan Kundera

This article is part of a special edition of Haaretz, to mark Israel's book week.

I have never met Roman Polanski. I know him only through his work, which I have loved ever since his first films, and through whatever I have been able to learn of his life. He has always seemed to me to be of an exemplary European character, given his childhood encounter with anti-Semitism, his repeated experiences as an emigre, and his classic and beautiful blend of Polish and French cultures.


Roman Polanski. Photo by: AP

However, although I do not know him personally, he has been on my mind more than any other person for the past eight months. I can envisage him forcibly confined and continually monitored in a Swiss chalet where he is trying to work but - as I well know - is unable to.

When you are accused of a crime, you are always in prison. The accusation preoccupies you; it prevents you from thinking about anything else. It deprives you of life itself.

I will say nothing here about the legal aspect of this entire affair. Nonetheless, I do wish to say that European art, literature and theater have taught us that we must tear the curtain off all judicial, religious and ideological rules and that we must view human existence in all its concrete reality.

As someone who feels a loyalty to that culture, I refuse to be blind to the absurdity of Polanski's situation: He is being persecuted for an act that took place 33 years ago. All the protagonists in the drama long ago pardoned him. For this act, he is the defendant in an endless trial that will benefit no one. Absolutely no one.

If Europe is still Europe, if it is still heir of its own culture, it cannot give tacit agreement to the absurdity of the cruel pantomime that is currently being played out in a Swiss chalet.

The writer, winner of the Jerusalem Prize, authored "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," among other novels.