Polanski’s big mouth

Roman Polanski, who pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl three decades ago, has decided to speak in his own defense. In a screed posted on a sympathetic website, the director of “Chinatown” and “Rosemary’s Baby,” now under house arrest in Switzerland, offers an array of assertions: He was treated unfairly by the California courts; he has the right to be sentenced without returning to this country; the United States wants to serve him “on a platter to the media”; and the prosecutor who is seeking his extradition is running for higher office and “needs media publicity.”

Polanski’s statement is punctuated by the refrain “I can remain silent no longer!” But he hasn’t served his cause by opening his mouth. Most of his complaints are easily dismissed, including his gibe at L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, who is running for state attorney general, and his suggestion that prosecutors should defer to the wishes of Samantha Geimer, his victim, that the case not be pursued further. As we have observed before, the case against Polanski was brought not to satisfy Geimer’s desire for justice but to prosecute an offense against the laws of California.

Perhaps most objectionable is Polanski’s plea that he be “treated fairly like anyone else.” The implication is that he has been singled out because of his celebrity status. It’s more plausible that he was treated more leniently than an ordinary defendant accused of drugging and raping a young teenager. (The rape charge was dropped, and Polanski pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sex with a minor.)

More substantial is Polanski’s argument that the original judge in his case reneged on a plea-bargain deal. Polanski and his defenders claim that sealed testimony by a prosecutor confirms that the judge had promised to limit the director’s sentence to a 90-day diagnostic study. If this is true, it raises legitimate concerns about due process. But a fugitive from justice is in no legal or moral position to claim that his rights were violated. That is the message of the latest development in this long legal saga, an appeals court’s decision two weeks ago that a Los Angeles judge acted within his discretion in refusing to sentence Polanski while he remained abroad.

Polanski has every right to “remain silent no longer.” But he should give voice to his complaints in court, and in this country.