Here’s an interesting wrinkle in the Roman Polanski case which sounds like it’s hinting at something else.
Polanski’s French lawyers have been insisting for some time now and most recently on Friday that Polanski would not return voluntarily to the United States.
However, Polanski’s L.A. lawyers, Douglas Dalton — who’s been the director’s attorney as part of this case since the 1970s — Bart Dalton and Chad Hummel have said that the French lawyer Herve Temime and all other French attorneys are not authorized to speak on his behalf and it’s only their word that counts.
“The French lawyers do not represent him in the case and do not speak for him about it,” a statement said from the two Daltons and Hummel according to Reuters.
The statement said only the three Los Angeles lawyers, along with Dr. Lorenz Erni in Switzerland and Polanski himself “are authorized to speak on his behalf” about the case.
Sort of suggests that the L.A. lawyers have a possibly different plan, which might even include a voluntary return, does it not? Sure sounds like it at least. Or at least the message seems to say, “shut up, we are not ruling that out as a possibility.” Could they even already be negotiating with the L.A. district’s office? Either way they’re surely distancing themselves from the French attorneys stance which surely does suggest another approach. Apparently a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles lawyers declined to comment any deeper than that sort of cryptic response to their cohorts in France.
Meanwhile, Swiss justice officials recently said they will decide within the next few weeks whether to allow Roman Polanski to go free on bail. This will basically be the third, possibly fourth time Polanski’s bail plea has been reviewed. All of them so far have been turned down. Dec. 10 is the date that the California appeals court in Los Angeles has scheduled for oral arguments to review Polanski’s three-decade-old sex-abuse case.
Recent reports have said, Polanski’s wife — singer/actress Emmanuelle Seigner — and his family have been suffering emotionally as they wait an extradition decision. They have been “very upset psychologically by this separation that is a true heartbreak,” the same French lawyer, Temime said (though maybe according to the L.A. attorneys the family is totally peachy keen).
The director has been in prison since September 26. The day of his arrest in Zurich, Switzerland.