{"id":720,"date":"2009-10-01T13:28:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-01T11:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artherapievirtus.org\/VPI\/polanski-trahi-par-une-bourde-de-ses-avocats-new-york-coste\/"},"modified":"2009-10-01T13:28:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-01T11:28:00","slug":"polanski-trahi-par-une-bourde-de-ses-avocats-new-york-coste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artherapievirtus.org\/VPI\/polanski-trahi-par-une-bourde-de-ses-avocats-new-york-coste\/","title":{"rendered":"Polanski trahi par une bourde de ses avocats\u00a0? \u2013 New York Coste"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>le 29 septembre 2009 7h54 |<\/span>
par <\/abbr><\/p>\n

\nPhilippe Coste<\/a>
\n<\/address>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLes avocats am\u00e9ricains de Roman Polanski seraient-ils les premiers responsables de l\u2019arrestation de leur client samedi dernier \u00e0 Zurich ? Le <\/span>Los Angeles Times<\/a> raconte dans le d\u00e9tail leur gaffe absurde.<\/span><\/span> Lors de deux plaidoiries en juillet et ao\u00fbt dernier, les lawyers Chad Hummel, Douglas Dalton et Bart Dalton ont demand\u00e9 devant une cour d\u2019appel de Los Angeles la lev\u00e9e des poursuites contre Polanski, en arguant d\u2019irr\u00e9gularit\u00e9s commises par le juge charg\u00e9 de l\u2019affaire en 1978, si acharn\u00e9 \u00e0 obtenir la t\u00eate de Polanski qu\u2019il aurait pouss\u00e9 le r\u00e9alisateur \u00e0 fuir en France ; irr\u00e9gularit\u00e9s clairement d\u00e9montr\u00e9e selon eux par un documentaire diffus\u00e9 en 2008 sur HBO, consacr\u00e9 aux conditions apparemm<\/span><\/span>ent iniques de son jugement.<\/span><\/span> Les avocats ont repris les \u00e9l\u00e9ments de l\u2019enqu\u00eate de la documentariste Marina Zenovich sur le juge Laurence Rittenband (d\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9 en 1994), Mais la suite laisse songeur :<\/span><\/span> Pour \u00e9tayer leur argumentaire, les avocats ont \u00e9crit dans leur requ\u00eate que le District Attorney de Los Angeles avait lui m\u00eame renonc\u00e9 depuis des ann\u00e9es… \u00e0 obtenir l\u2019extradition de Roman Polanski. Pourquoi tant de mansu\u00e9tude ? Selon eux parce que la comparution du r\u00e9alisateur devant une cour californienne aurait n\u00e9cessairement mis en lumi\u00e8re les abus commis contre ce dernier en 1978 par le juge en question, autant que par les procureurs de l\u2019\u00e9poque. En laissant le fugitif vivre tranquille en Europe, la justice californienne \u00e9vitait ces r\u00e9v\u00e9lations embarrassantes.<\/span><\/span> Ces arguments idiots, genre th\u00e9orie du complot, ont \u00e9t\u00e9 per\u00e7u comme une provocation par l\u2019actuel District Attorney en poste. Il faut en effet savoir deux choses sur le s\u00e9millant Steve Cooley : D\u2019une part, il n\u2019a jamais rechign\u00e9 \u00e0 \u00e9taler au grand jour l\u2019incomp\u00e9tence et les tares de ses pr\u00e9d\u00e9cesseurs ; C\u2019est m\u00eame ainsi qu\u2019il a <\/span><\/span>obtenu sa premi\u00e8re \u00e9lection triomphale en 2000. D\u2019autre part, il avait certes d\u2019autre chats \u00e0 fouetter que Roman Polanski, mais ses services ont tent\u00e9 au moins trois fois ces dix derni\u00e8res ann\u00e9es d\u2019obtenir son arrestation lors de ses voyages dans divers pays, comme le Canada ou Isra\u00ebl.<\/span><\/span> Bref, en ao\u00fbt dernier, au moment o\u00f9 les avocats r\u00e9it\u00e9raient leur th\u00e9orie du \u00ab fugitif-t\u00e9moin g\u00e9nant \u00bb, \u00ab Variety \u00bb, la bible d\u2019Hollywood, annon\u00e7ait que Polanski serait \u00e0 Zurick un mois plus tard ; les tickets du festival mentionnant la pr\u00e9sence du r\u00e9alisateur-star \u00e9taient d\u00e9j\u00e0 en vente sur l\u2019internet. Steve Cooley a eu cette fois tout le temps de faire parvenir sa demande d’extradition aux Suisses.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n
\"\"<\/span><\/a><\/address>\n

<\/span> <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

Polanski’s attorneys may have ignited arrest fuse<\/span>
<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
In court filings this summer, they said the L.A. County district attorney’s office had made no effort to arrest the fugitive filmmaker. Sources say the allegations caught officials’ attention.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Roman Polanski’s attorneys helped provoke his arrest by complaining to an appellate court this summer that Los Angeles County prosecutors had made no real effort to capture the filmmaker in his three decades as a fugitive, two law enforcement sources familiar with the case told The Times.
The accusation that the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office was not serious about extraditing Polanski to face sentencing in a child sex case he fled in 1978 was a minor point in two lengthy July court filings by the director’s attorneys.
But the charge caught the attention of prosecutors, who had made several attempts to apprehend Polanski over the years.
Swiss officials detained the 76-year-old Saturday as he arrived to accept a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival.
The arrest prompted protests from officials in France, Poland and elsewhere in Europe on Monday, with calls that Swiss authorities allow Polanski to be released on bail. Polanski’s attorneys announced that the Academy Award-winning director would wage a vigorous legal fight in Swiss courts against extradition to the United States.
There have been persistent questions about why authorities arrested Polanski now given that the director has routinely traveled throughout Europe, including Switzerland, without incident.
Based in Paris, he spent long stretches in Berlin and Prague filming movies, oversaw theater productions in Vienna and skied at his chalet in Gstaad.
\u00ab\u00a0He’s one of the most visible public figures in Europe. When he’s doing an opera in Vienna — where he’s been on and off for the past 10 years — it’s in the news,\u00a0\u00bb said Jeff Berg, his agent. \u00ab\u00a0This is not the case of someone being one step ahead of the law.\u00a0\u00bb
But what appears to have set the trip apart was its wide publicity in the weeks after Polanski’s lawyers had accused prosecutors of inaction.\n<\/div>\n
Details of the festival, such as the timing of Polanski’s red carpet stroll and acceptance speech, were readily available online and movie industry publications had said he planned to attend, including a Daily Variety story in early August.
The month before, Polanski’s attorneys had filed two separate documents with the California 2nd District Court of Appeal asking for a dismissal of all charges against the filmmaker in the alleged assault of a 13-year-old girl.<\/span>
In both filings, the lawyers alleged that the district attorney’s office in effect benefited from Polanski’s absence, because as long as he remained a fugitive, officials could avoid answering allegations of prosecutorial and judicial wrongdoing in the original handling of the case.<\/span>
\u00ab\u00a0The district attorney’s office, in the 30 years since Mr. Polanski left the jurisdiction, has not once sought to have him extradited. If it had, there would have been a hearing regarding misconduct in this case,\u00a0\u00bb wrote the attorneys, Chad Hummel, Douglas Dalton and Bart Dalton, in a July 7 filing.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
\n Twenty days later, they filed a second document and raised the issue again in a footnote. \u00ab\u00a0Combined with the fact that no effort has been made to extradite Mr. Polanski, the intent here is clear: Invoke a physical absence which they caused and deliberately perpetuate in order to preserve the unconstitutional status quo and never address the misconduct head on,\u00a0\u00bb the lawyers wrote.<\/span>
The sources, who are familiar with the prosecution’s case but spoke on condition that they not be named because the case was open, said the statements prompted the district attorney’s office to look anew for an opportunity to seize Polanski. His appearance in Switzerland, where a 1995 agreement allows extradition to the United States, provided such a chance, the sources said.<\/span>
A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment on what role if any the court filings by Polanski’s attorneys played in the arrest. But the office produced a list of eight instances since 1978 in which prosecutors took steps to apprehend Polanski.<\/span>
\u00ab\u00a0Those attempts were not successful. This attempt was,\u00a0\u00bb spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.<\/span>
Some of the moves were bureaucratic — the opening of a case file when authorities established that Polanski had taken up residence in France after his flight from L.A. in 1978. But most involved responding to reports of planned international trips by Polanski. Three months after the director became a fugitive, prosecutors learned that he was planning a trip to England and prepared an arrest warrant. It is unclear whether Polanski made the trip, but the warrant was never served.<\/span>
In 1986, prosecutors consulted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about a possible visit to Canada by Polanski, but the trip never materialized. In 1994, they told the Justice Department that they were still interested in pursuing Polanski and submitted an arrest warrant request to France. His French citizenship has long protected him from extradition and it’s unclear how French officials responded.<\/span>
In 2005, Polanski traveled to Thailand and prosecutors alerted Interpol, but the director was not arrested. In 2007, prosecutors tried to arrange his arrest during a trip to Israel, but authorities there requested additional information and the director left the country in the interim.<\/span>
The final date on the list, Sept. 22, was the day prosecutors prepared the provisional warrant for Polanski’s arrest en route to the film festival.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

harriet.ryan@latimes.com<\/a>
richard.winton@latimes.com<\/a>
Times staff writer Jack Leonard contributed to this report.
Copyright \u00a9 2009, The Los Angeles Times<\/a><\/p>\n

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