Some basic facts. He never had a trial and has never been sentenced. He pleaded guilty to statutory rape to avoid trial on more serious charges and then was put under psychiatric observation for 42 days for the purposes of preparing a sentencing report. When Polanski decided that the Judge was not going to honor the terms of Polanski's deal with the prosecution (a plea deal does not bind a court because the deal is only between the prosecution and the defense) and just give him probation he fled the country in the face of a maximum twenty year sentence.
Polanski's detractors (including me) repeatedly cite to the victim's grand jury testimony for the facts of Polanski's rape ("the so called crime") of a 13 year old carried out in part by plying her with champagne and quaaludes. But caution is in order when citing to grand jury testimony as proof of facts. When you read the grand jury testimony of the victim it's quite obvious that she was coached. This doesn't mean it's not true, but doubtless the DA sat the victim down for witness prep before her testimony. It is perfectly legitimate to prepare a witness, particularly a rape victim, for the experience of testifying as long as you don't tell them what to say. But it's not always so easy during a prep session to avoid shaping a witnesses testimony to conveniently fit your case. Particularly when you are dealing with a young and probably impressionable witness. The transcript reads as if the prosecutor had gone over his line of questioning with the victim before hand. Whether everything that she testified to was accurate is difficult to determine however because there was no cross-examination. Grand jury witnesses are not subject to cross-examination. Grand juries are convened to determine if there is sufficient evidence supporting a finding of probable cause for an indictment, not to make final findings of fact. The prosecutor runs the show exclusively. So when you're reading the grand jury testimony, you're reading the Prosecutor's unchallenged narrative exclusively, and the prosecutor is always striving for the most dramatically compelling narrative possible to justify the charges. Thus grand jury testimony should always be read with some skepticism.
