--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Alex Stanley" <j_alexander_stan...@...> wrote: > > That they would even allow a plea bargain in the case of > a child being drugged and raped makes me believe that he > was being given severely preferential treatment. And, it > wouldn't surprise me if Salva's year long sentence were > a lot shorter than what someone off the street would > have gotten.
Alex, That you would say this reveals two things: first, an abysmal ignorance of the law and how it works, and second, that you didn't live in L.A. at the time this court case went down. I did. Every day the papers were full of it (in more senses than one). The prosecutors offered him a plea bargain *because they were afraid that if the case went to trial they would lose*. They had gone over the top and charged him with as many counts as they possibly could, most of which they knew they could never prove in court. They also knew that if the case went to court the girl's past history would come out, which would risk the possibility of Polanski being found not guilty on all counts and walking. So they offered him a plea bargain and dropped five of the six charges, in exchange for him plead- ing guilty to the charge of having sex with a minor. They stipulated that his sentence for this would be reduced to "time served." They assured the defense that this had been agreed to by the judge, and he gave oral confirmation of this. So Polanski confessed to the single charge, expect- ing the deal to be honored. Within a few days, the judge gave an interview to reporters in which he said that he did *not* intend to honor the deal, and would be giving Polanski substantially more time in prison. Several of the prosecutors in the case, in the years since, have gone on the public record saying that *after* the deal was agreed to they were actively lobbying the judge to do just this. Polanski "read the cards," realized that the game was fixed, and bailed. I can't blame him for this. What I can blame him for is the original act, and I do. But that doesn't excuse this travesty of justice. The few posts that have been made here about Americans and their tendency to take their "dark side" out on celebrities are all Right On. Americans just *can't wait* for someone they have placed on a pedestal to fall, so they can take their everpresent anger out on them. Polanski was just the "scapegoat du jour." Yes, I think he probably should have served more time than 42 days, too. But the way things were looking, they were going to try to put him away for 5 to 10 times longer than anyone else convicted in California of the same crime. The judge even made hints about doing this to associates in the legal profession, all of whom are on the record about it. All of this information on the backroom dirty deal- ings and duplicity were submitted to an Appeals Court long ago, and *have never been heard*, because the legal system was trying to protect itself. It still is. And, as reported by the AP, it seems they have blackmailed Switzerland to arrest Polanski and send him back to the US in exchange for "going light" on Swiss bank UBS, which they were investigating for hiding money to enable Americans to not pay taxes on it. It's all politics, it's all *dirty* politics, and IMO it all reflects the true Protestant nature of the United States Of Hypocrisy. "The things these people did were bad, 'sins,' so we should torture them until they see God the way we do." And the amazing thing to me is to see the fervor and the *perversion* with which many long-term TMers join in the blood frenzy and the desire for revenge. I'm sorry, but that's barely human, much less spiritual. With Doug, it's hard to tell which of his posts are put-ons and which are serious. With Edg, we know...he's basically a simmering pot of revenge fantasies just waiting for an excuse to boil over. With other people on this forum, I think the same thing is true. They're not being "spiritual" or "moral" or caring about the "child." They're in it for the revenge fantasies. They're GETTING OFF on fucking Roman Polanski in the ass, just as he did with the girl. The difference is that he was stoned, and they're pretending to not only be better than he is, but "spiritual." The whole phenomenon makes me want to spit.
