LA prosecutors: Efforts to arrest Polanski span the decades, including 2007 in Israel

Prosecutors: Polanski efforts go back decades

LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors in Los Angeles say they made contact with several countries on multiple occasions in their efforts to arrest Roman Polanski since he fled overseas in 1978.

A release by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Monday said that as recently as 2007, prosecutors became aware of his scheduled appearance in Israel, but information sent to authorities there arrived too late to take action.

Defense attorneys claimed in an appeals motion filed in July that prosecutors had “not once sought to have him extradited.” The filing said doing so would have brought to light judicial and prosecutorial misconduct they argued was grounds for dismissal of charges that he had sex with a 13-year-old girl.

A response by prosecutors said Polanski’s attorneys were not privy to their efforts to return Polanski to the U.S. The list released Monday detailed nine separate actions prosecutors took since February 1978, including at least one per decade.

The director pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse in 1977, but fled to France on the day of his sentencing in 1978, aware the judge planned renege on the agreement and sentence him to more prison time.

Polanski was arrested by Swiss authorities on Saturday as he arrived for the Zurich Film Festival to collect a lifetime achievement award. His lawyer said Tuesday that the “Chinatown” director planned to fight extradition.