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Roman Polanski
Attorney Lawrence Silver arranged for Polanski to plea-bargain, to keep the case from going to trial. Accordingly, Polanski pleaded guilty to the lowest of the counts against him, unlawful sexual intercourse.
A probation report recommended against a custodial sentence, but Rittenband decreed that Polanski should have a spell undergoing “‘diagnostic study” at Chino State Prison.
However, he agreed to defer Polanski’s custody to allow him to work on his next project.
On a trip to Europe, Polanski allowed himself to be photographed, cigar in hand and surrounded by young women, at the Munich Oktoberfest.
Rittenband was furious; when Polanski returned to LA, he was sent straight to Chino for the evaluation period.
Polanski was released after 42 days of his 90-day term.
He had been led to believe by Rittenband that after Chino, his time behind bars would be over, but, the judge was overheard boasting at his country club that he would put Polanski away “for 100 years.”
The photo in question and another from the same day:
Shortly after Polanski fled, Rittenband issued the following statement:
An appropriate sentence would be for Mr. Polanski to serve out the remainder of the 90-day period for which he had been sent to Chino, provided Mr. Polanski were to be deported by the Immigration and Naturalization Bureau, by stipulation or otherwise, at the end of the 90 days.
I was aware that the court lacked authority to order Mr. Polanski deported directly or as a condition of probation.
However, based on the facts before me, I believed that the safety and welfare of the citizens of California required that Mr. Polanski be kept out of circulation for more than 90 days.
However, since Mr. Polanski is an alien who had pleaded guilty to an act of moral turpitude, I believe that the interests of the citizens of California could be adequately safeguarded by a shorter jail term if Mr. Polanski would thereafter absent himself from the country.
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