Officials say U.S. failed to turn over requested documents. The State Department and Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley criticize the decision.
Reporting from London and Los Angeles —
The Swiss government's decision Monday to free Roman Polanski outraged Los Angeles prosecutors and U.S. officials but effectively ended a legal odyssey that has lurched along with periodic eruptions of public furor since 1977, when the famed director was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl.Polanski will not be extradited to the United States to face sentencing for having unlawful sex with the girl , allowing him to live freely in Switzerland and France, where he has resided since he fled the United States 32 years ago.
Swiss justice officials said the U.S. failed to turn over documents they had requested. They also said Polanski, who has a vacation home in Switzerland, would not have expected to be arrested and deported because American officials knew of his frequent presence there in recent years but never acted on it.
In Los Angeles and Washington, officials vowed to continue their pursuit of Polanski, though their options are now significantly limited.
"A 13-year-old girl was drugged and raped," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. "This is not a matter of technicality."
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, who led the effort to bring Polanski back to the U.S., said he was dumbfounded.
"Mr. Polanski is still convicted of serious child sex charges," Cooley said. "The Swiss could not have found a smaller hook on which to hang their hat."
He said he would seek extradition again if Polanski is arrested in any other country where U.S. officials have extradition treaties in place.
But Samantha Geimer, the victim in the case who has publicly forgiven Polanski, said she hopes this finally brings the issue to a close.
"I hope that the D.A.'s office will now have this case dismissed and finally put the matter to rest once and for all," she said in an e-mail.
Polanski's whereabouts were unknown Monday. Swiss authorities said they turned off the electronic monitoring bracelet that he had to wear during his seven months of house arrest at his three-story villa in the ski resort town of Gstaad.
"He can go to France or to Poland, anywhere he will not be arrested," Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said at a news conference.
The director has been in Swiss custody since September, when police arrested him on his arrival in Zurich to accept a lifetime achievement award at the local film festival. The arrest was performed at Cooley's request, and reignited debate from Paris to Hollywood over the fugitive director's case.
For all the legal maneuvering and spectacle of recent months, both sides are basically where they were in 1978, with the district attorney refusing to let the case go and Polanski refusing to come back.
In April, the 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected Polanski's request to be sentenced in absentia to time served.
The legal argument that has dragged the case along for more than a generation hinges on whether Polanski already served his time.
Before Polanski's sentencing in 1977, Judge Laurence J. Rittenband ordered him to undergo a 90-day psychiatric study at the state prison in Chino. The prosecutor and Polanski's attorney understood that this time in the prison would serve as Polanski's punishment.
Polanski reported to Chino and was released after 42 days. But Rittenband then told the attorneys in private that he wanted Polanski to finish the 90 days — and then leave the country. If he didn't leave, he'd get even more prison time.
Hearing this, Polanski fled.
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
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