I’ve managed to avoid blogging about Roman Polanski before now, but I have to admit to sharing some curiosity about the timing of this whole affair. After all, Polanski has been flitting around Europe for decades and owns a home in Switzerland. So why did prosecutors in Los Angeles suddenly feel the need to go after him now? The LA Times thinks it has the answer:
Sources have told The Times that Polanski’s attorneys helped to 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.
The accusation that the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office was not serious about extraditing Polanski 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.
Lesson of the day: keep an eye on your lawyers. Sure, they’re clever, but sometimes they can be a little too clever.