Roman Polanski is feverishly searching for help as he sits in jail awaiting positive news. Since getting support from Hollywood bigwigs simply won’t suffice, the Polanski team is digging much deeper.
Earlier this week in Reuters:
In the past three decades, questions have arisen about judicial misconduct and the victim, Samantha Geimer, has said Polanski should not face more jail time.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told French radio he was working with Poland on the matter and had written to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Questions were raised overseas about a U.S. pardon. The office of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the governor has authority to grant clemency in some cases but has not been approached over the Polanski matter. [Source]
We’re assuming the strategy of having big name politicians pull strings didn’t work b/c it was recently learned that the jailed film director hired Steptoe & Johnson’s Reid Weingarten, a veteran D.C. defense lawyer who’s renowned for taking on big cases. Here’s an excerpt from an today’s NY Times which made reference to Reid Weingarten’s strategy …
Mr. Weingarten is expected to mount a legal effort to block Mr. Polanski’s extradition before the issue works its way through the Swiss legal system, according to people who were briefed on Mr. Weingarten’s involvement, but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
A critical step will most likely be a move to stop the extradition before United States authorities send the required documents to Switzerland. Mr. Polanski’s team may do so by arguing either that his crime does not qualify for extradition, because he was originally to have been sentenced to less than a year in prison, or that he has already effectively served his sentence, during a 42-day psychiatric evaluation. [Source]
When important members of the Jewish community, big egos, & lots of money are in play, we’re gonna go out on a limb and assume things will work out beautifully for Roman Polanski. Knowing his luck, he’ll probably get the government to fund his next movie about his recent experiences—starring his sex-crazed victim, Samantha Geimer.
