Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Should fugitive filmmaker Roman Polanski be allowed back in the USA?
Transcript
- 0:11Speaker 1: Filmmaker Roman Polansky has wanted in the US in a
- 0:13Speaker 1: case involving sex with a minor which has haunted him
- 0:16Speaker 1: for almost forty years. Polanski's lawyer said he has paid
- 0:20Speaker 1: dearly for what he has done and has been unable
- 0:23Speaker 1: to make movies in Hollywood ever since. This is crime stories,
- 0:28Speaker 1: But Nancy Grace. The filmmaker pleaded guilty in to one
- 0:33Speaker 1: count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a thirteen year old
- 0:37Speaker 1: girl during a photo shoot in Los Angeles. He served
- 0:40Speaker 1: just forty two days in prison before leaving the US
- 0:43Speaker 1: fearing the judge would have him in prison for longer.
- 0:46Speaker 1: He lives in France and has a home in Switzerland.
- 0:49Speaker 1: The US has tried to bring Polanski back to court,
- 0:51Speaker 1: but so far those attempts have failed. A child rapist
- 1:00Speaker 1: has walked free. But why he was within our grasp
- 1:05Speaker 1: and he escaped. Now this were an ordinary child rapist
- 1:10Speaker 1: that had already pled to illegal sex with a thirteen
- 1:16Speaker 1: year old child, that's statutory rape period, no two ways
- 1:21Speaker 1: about it. He would be under the jail. But because
- 1:25Speaker 1: he is feigned director Roman Polanski, he's living in a
- 1:30Speaker 1: mansion and I guess Switzerland, I Nancy grace. This is
- 1:34Speaker 1: crime stories. Thank you for being with us. Roman Polanski,
- 1:39Speaker 1: convicted child rapists, wants to come back to the US
- 1:43Speaker 1: after living the high life forty years on the lamb.
- 1:47Speaker 1: But he is insisting the only way he'll come back
- 1:50Speaker 1: to the US is if a judge says he has
- 1:54Speaker 1: already done enough jail time. What about forty days behind
- 1:58Speaker 1: bars while he was getting a mental evaluation? What forty
- 2:03Speaker 1: days for raping a thirteen year old child? That child,
- 2:09Speaker 1: now a woman, has never deviated from her story about
- 2:13Speaker 1: what happened that day. Roman Polanski, the director was forty
- 2:17Speaker 1: three when the event occurred. The victim was just thirteen.
- 2:21Speaker 1: He wants to grace us with his presence by coming
- 2:24Speaker 1: back to the US. Do do I want him back? No? No,
- 2:27Speaker 1: not really. His attorney now asked a judge to stay
- 2:31Speaker 1: Polanski has served enough time according to TMZ. The prosecutor,
- 2:36Speaker 1: of course, is against this because he could be jailed
- 2:40Speaker 1: for up to fifty years on this. This is statutory rape.
- 2:45Speaker 1: Many people argue to this day that girls or boys
- 2:50Speaker 1: can consent to sex. That's not true. At that age.
- 2:55Speaker 1: You can't buy a car, you can't buy alcohol, you
- 2:57Speaker 1: can't vote, you can't buy a house or enter a contract.
- 3:01Speaker 1: You can't even buy cigarettes because you are a minor,
- 3:05Speaker 1: Why would you be able to consent to sex with
- 3:08Speaker 1: an adult? Not that that's even the defense here. According
- 3:12Speaker 1: to the facts, as I recall them, this little girl,
- 3:15Speaker 1: according to reports, was fed drugs, led into a hot tub,
- 3:19Speaker 1: and the next thing you know, Roman Polansky had had
- 3:22Speaker 1: sex with her. What is just anything okay? In l A?
- 3:25Speaker 1: Does anything go? I don't think so. Joining me right
- 3:29Speaker 1: now is Alan, do you chopping at the bit to
- 3:31Speaker 1: jump in? I am because you say I've covered l
- 3:34Speaker 1: A for a few years, but I wasn't there in
- 3:36Speaker 1: nineteen seven when this case came down. But this is
- 3:39Speaker 1: a classic Hollywood celebrity case gone bad. Yes, the facts,
- 3:44Speaker 1: as I understand that, this was a thirteen year old
- 3:46Speaker 1: girl who aspired to be an actress. Her mother wanted
- 3:50Speaker 1: her to be an actress, and she I doubt her
- 3:53Speaker 1: mother wanted her to have sex with but her her
- 3:56Speaker 1: mother did want her to have a friend ship with
- 4:00Speaker 1: Roman Plansky. And it's something that happens in Hollywood. No,
- 4:05Speaker 1: I don't know what you mean when it's something that
- 4:07Speaker 1: happens where you're This is a really bad problem in
- 4:11Speaker 1: Hollywood where children are made vulnerable to people like Roman Plansky,
- 4:15Speaker 1: And in nineteen seventy seven it was probably a lot
- 4:18Speaker 1: worse than it is now. So what happened was abhorrent,
- 4:22Speaker 1: just horrible. What happened. Yes, he got her in the
- 4:25Speaker 1: hot tub and he ended up having sexual relations with
- 4:29Speaker 1: the year old. Yes, it is, so, this is what happen. No, no,
- 4:34Speaker 1: no, no no no, Let's just be clear, Alan, there's no
- 4:38Speaker 1: such thing as quote, sex with a thirteen year old girl.
- 4:41Speaker 1: That is rape. Okay, I agree with right, agree with you,
- 4:45Speaker 1: but legally legally as part of a plea agreement in
- 4:49Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven with Roman Polanski, they made a plea
- 4:53Speaker 1: agreement where he pled guilty to having sex with her,
- 4:56Speaker 1: but not to rape. The actually was not prosecuted. On
- 5:02Speaker 1: just a moment place, I'm going to forgive you because
- 5:05Speaker 1: I know that you have not prosecuted felonies. Sex with
- 5:09Speaker 1: a minor is statutory rate. Because you don't beat the
- 5:15Speaker 1: person or drag them off into the bushes or ripped
- 5:18Speaker 1: a clothes off, that does not mean it's rape. For instance,
- 5:21Speaker 1: if I slipped to you with g HB. Georgia Homeboy
- 5:25Speaker 1: Gama Hi droxy beauty rate and raped you. True, you
- 5:29Speaker 1: wouldn't fight me, but you wouldn't consent either. A child,
- 5:32Speaker 1: it's not able to give consent, So whatever happens, it
- 5:35Speaker 1: is rape because no consent was given. But they did not,
- 5:38Speaker 1: as the plea agreement goes, they did not prosecute him.
- 5:42Speaker 1: But do you think sex is? This is and whether
- 5:48Speaker 1: it's right or wrong? Legally, they did not prosecute. They
- 5:51Speaker 1: dropped the right charge in exchange for a play deal
- 5:56Speaker 1: or the other charge, which is perfectly fine. The deal
- 5:58Speaker 1: was and he could get fifty years on that. The
- 6:00Speaker 1: deal was that he would plead guilty, and he entered
- 6:03Speaker 1: a guilty plea with the understanding. Then he went into
- 6:07Speaker 1: custody for forty five days for a psychiatric examination. This
- 6:12Speaker 1: is what the judge ordered. But what happened during those
- 6:14Speaker 1: forty five days is the big question. Roman Polanski left
- 6:20Speaker 1: the country after getting out from the forty five days
- 6:22Speaker 1: because it was his understanding that the judge was going
- 6:26Speaker 1: to go back on the plea deal. And what we
- 6:29Speaker 1: found out judge cannot enter a deal. No, but the
- 6:33Speaker 1: judge had agreed to the plea deal is This is
- 6:35Speaker 1: the argument from Polansky's lawyer, the judge had agreed to it.
- 6:40Speaker 1: Then Polansky found out that the judge had changed his mind.
- 6:43Speaker 1: Why did the judge change his mind? We've got some
- 6:46Speaker 1: indication from a documentary that came out in two thousand
- 6:49Speaker 1: and nine, the documentary on No. One of the prosecutors
- 6:54Speaker 1: in the documentary was interviewed saying that he basically the
- 6:59Speaker 1: prosecutor go did the judge ex parte or whatever you
- 7:03Speaker 1: lawyers call it, go to the judge into changing and
- 7:08Speaker 1: renigging on it, and that that was what was going on.
- 7:12Speaker 1: There was basically misconduct and that okay, just pause pause.
- 7:18Speaker 1: Has there ever been a charge against the judge from misconduct?
- 7:22Speaker 1: The reason that it had long gone that this is
- 7:28Speaker 1: if they ever charged the judge with misconduct? Let me
- 7:30Speaker 1: guess no, Polanski's lawyers have made the accusation. Yes, but
- 7:35Speaker 1: this is the problem that you're not answering until just
- 7:39Speaker 1: stop talking, please, just for a moment. Oh, if it
- 7:43Speaker 1: were only that simple with my husband, or my children
- 7:47Speaker 1: or anybody else in my life. Listen, wait a minute,
- 7:49Speaker 1: just this question, Allen, But you are skillfully evading. Did
- 7:55Speaker 1: the judge ever get cited for misconduct? Because this thing
- 8:02Speaker 1: has to pay out. The reason this thing could not
- 8:05Speaker 1: If you are a fugitive from Californnia, you don't have
- 8:10Speaker 1: the right to challenge the judge. And so what a
- 8:13Speaker 1: judge said back in oh nine and two thousand and
- 8:16Speaker 1: ten in response to Polanski's appeal then to be able
- 8:19Speaker 1: to come back, was you have to come back here.
- 8:22Speaker 1: If you're going to challenge this whole thing. You can't
- 8:25Speaker 1: be a fugitive challenges I'm talking about at the time
- 8:30Speaker 1: that it happened, right, he just left the country ever
- 8:33Speaker 1: sided with miss conduct. So now all these years later,
- 8:37Speaker 1: now they're climbing miss well in the last ten years,
- 8:40Speaker 1: in the last ten years, this is the leg You
- 8:42Speaker 1: know how much why I give that? Not much, But
- 8:46Speaker 1: in a court of law, he can't do it. As
- 8:49Speaker 1: the argument, and I understand this as a fugitive, he
- 8:52Speaker 1: cannot be a fugitive and challenge what happened. He has
- 8:55Speaker 1: to come back here and face it's see, that's where
- 8:57Speaker 1: they have the showdown. So what happened was in two
- 9:00Speaker 1: thousand and nine, the prosecutors in Los Angeles got an
- 9:04Speaker 1: extradition warrant for Polanski. Polanski was then arrested in Switzerland
- 9:12Speaker 1: held there for a while, eventually got some bond and
- 9:15Speaker 1: was hanging out in his shelley and Switzerland for a while.
- 9:19Speaker 1: I'm sure he was skiing too, So he waited, and
- 9:22Speaker 1: finally Switzerland decided not to extradite it. Am I surprised. No.
- 9:28Speaker 1: So that was two thousand and nine, two and ten,
- 9:31Speaker 1: and he's been still biding his time and now they're
- 9:34Speaker 1: trying to get it all cleared up, so he wants
- 9:38Speaker 1: to come back. But this is the thing. We haven't
- 9:40Speaker 1: mentioned this. Then, thirteen year old girl has been begging
- 9:44Speaker 1: the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office to just drop
- 9:49Speaker 1: this thing. Drop it now. She has been saying this
- 9:53Speaker 1: for a long time, and she says, look, I'm over it.
- 9:59Speaker 1: Said it okay. Saying it eight or nine more times
- 10:01Speaker 1: in different words does not change anything for me. I
- 10:04Speaker 1: have one question to ask you in that regard, and
- 10:07Speaker 1: it is a yes no question. You're telling me that
- 10:11Speaker 1: she is now saying and has been saying for a
- 10:14Speaker 1: few years. You know what, I'm exhausted. Just drop it, okay.
- 10:17Speaker 1: I get that. As a crime victim, I completely get that.
- 10:21Speaker 1: My question to you is is there one time ever
- 10:25Speaker 1: that she has said it didn't happen. No, I don't
- 10:29Speaker 1: think anybody's Let me just remind you of something, Alan,
- 10:33Speaker 1: the prosecutor is not the victim. And I know this
- 10:37Speaker 1: because I had to do it. Sometimes you have to
- 10:39Speaker 1: do what's best for the victim. When the victim does
- 10:44Speaker 1: not have the strength or the tenacity to go forward,
- 10:51Speaker 1: when the victim is exhausted, when the victim is tired,
- 10:54Speaker 1: when the victim is quote as you said, over it,
- 10:57Speaker 1: it is the state's duty to step in, take that
- 11:00Speaker 1: burden and go forward. And let me tell you something,
- 11:03Speaker 1: it would be a cold day in h E double
- 11:06Speaker 1: l that I would drop this charge, because that's what
- 11:09Speaker 1: it's about. She's exhausted from people asking her questions, bringing
- 11:12Speaker 1: it up, doing anyways, she was raped as a child.
- 11:15Speaker 1: You don't think that messed up her whole life. Actually,
- 11:18Speaker 1: she says it didn't mess up her whole life. She's
- 11:20Speaker 1: a mom of I think three kids. She's fifty two
- 11:23Speaker 1: years old now. But it's been a while. I mean,
- 11:27Speaker 1: please drive it. She got upset when they asked for extradition.
- 11:32Speaker 1: I didn't ask you. Did she go on? All victims
- 11:35Speaker 1: somehow go on? I went on, She's gone on, she
- 11:39Speaker 1: managed to marry and have a family. And it hurts me, actually,
- 11:44Speaker 1: Alan to hear you say, oh, she said it hasn't bothered.
- 11:47Speaker 1: I don't believe that, because you cannot be drugged and
- 11:51Speaker 1: raped by a forty something year old man when you're
- 11:54Speaker 1: thirteen and it doesn't change your life. Okay. So I
- 11:59Speaker 1: applaud or that she has had the strength to go on,
- 12:03Speaker 1: because I've dealt with a lot of rape victims and
- 12:05Speaker 1: a lot of child molestation victims, and they never go on,
- 12:10Speaker 1: and it's very hard. As I always say, it's like
- 12:12Speaker 1: breaking your arm and somehow, you know, you never get
- 12:16Speaker 1: it set. You learn how to flip a pancake, but
- 12:18Speaker 1: it's never the same again. So I'm happy that she's
- 12:22Speaker 1: gone on, but that does not mean justice has been obtained.
- 12:27Speaker 1: Yeah mm hmm, I saw you got to say. Yeah, Well,
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- 14:12Speaker 1: get back to Roman. Plansky almost said, I don't know
- 14:15Speaker 1: who he thinks he is, but I know who he
- 14:18Speaker 1: thinks he is a famous director. What what? What is
- 14:21Speaker 1: he directed? What? Pianist? Yes, you know there's the whole
- 14:27Speaker 1: Sharon Tate murder thing that he suffered the tragedy of
- 14:31Speaker 1: that that was what eight or nine years before this
- 14:36Speaker 1: all happened. You know, living in Hollywood today is not
- 14:40Speaker 1: like living in yes sixteen year in a hot time. Yeah,
- 14:46Speaker 1: it's despicable, it truly is. But there was a crime.
- 14:49Speaker 1: I'm not making a moral judgment. This is a crime.
- 14:51Speaker 1: It was a crime. But but the point is, legally
- 14:55Speaker 1: there was a deal in seven Well it's document. Just
- 15:00Speaker 1: because Roman Polansky says there was a deal, that doesn't
- 15:02Speaker 1: mean well they're saying that. You know, we don't need
- 15:07Speaker 1: to argue about this until he comes back. You can't
- 15:10Speaker 1: be a fugitive and challenge this. But there's a lot
- 15:13Speaker 1: of reason to just clear it up. One because the victim,
- 15:16Speaker 1: once it dropped, cleared up out of the victim wants
- 15:20Speaker 1: I'm sorry to tell you that it's about what is
- 15:22Speaker 1: justice now. Of course they would take that into consideration,
- 15:25Speaker 1: but for all I know, the victims started giving interviews
- 15:28Speaker 1: and being harassed about it. Maybe that's why she wants
- 15:31Speaker 1: it over. I don't know the truth behind that, so
- 15:35Speaker 1: do you. I believe that it's I didn't ask you
- 15:37Speaker 1: what you know? Well, I know that she would just
- 15:42Speaker 1: like them anything more than you've already said the answer. Okay,
- 15:48Speaker 1: so when is this coming to a head or do
- 15:50Speaker 1: we know? Maybe another look, Nancy, you can go and
- 15:55Speaker 1: google my name in roman Polansky and you'll see the
- 15:57Speaker 1: reporting I did ten years ago. This thing is not
- 16:00Speaker 1: is I enjoy talking with you about you. This is
- 16:03Speaker 1: actually about Roman plants. Point is not going away. It's
- 16:07Speaker 1: like the same old tune being recycled with this Roman plans. Okay,
- 16:12Speaker 1: this is all I can say, Lady Justice. What's Roman
- 16:16Speaker 1: Plansky behind bars? Let me just go out on a
- 16:20Speaker 1: limb and say that that's what I think is fair.
- 16:22Speaker 1: Now apparently my friend the Duke Alan Duke thinks otherwise.
- 16:27Speaker 1: Well we'll see about that, Alan Duke. Everybody, thank you
- 16:31Speaker 1: for joining us today. Nancy Grace Crime Stories signing off
- 16:35Speaker 1: in Roman Plansky. It'll be a cold day and you
- 16:39Speaker 1: know where before I want you back in the country.
- 16:41Speaker 1: How about that