Roman Polanski lawyers request the court to dismiss the case

It has been thirty years since Academy Award winning movie maker, Roman Polanski, have been accused of rape charges by the US court. In order to avoid prison sentence, Roman Polanski fled to France. Now, the lawyers of the director requested the court to drop the charges. They said that they have evidence which shows that Polanski’s case was distorted by “judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.”

On December 2, 2008, the request was filed with Judge David S. Wesley in the Los Angeles Superior Court by Chad S. Hummel of Phelps& Phillips and Bart Dalton. Bart Dalton’s father Douglas Dalton represented Mr. Polanski in 1977. Now, he has joined in the filing with his son. Mr. Polanski will be represented by Mr. Hummel. New York Times reports:

Tuesday’s filing said Judge Rittenband, who is now dead, intentionally violated a plea agreement with Mr. Polanski after having engaged in what it called “repeated unethical and unlawful ex parte communications” with a deputy district attorney who was not involved in the prosecution, but was independently advising the judge.

The lawyers cited the documentary titled Roman Polanski:Wanted and Desired, which showed that a former deputy district attorney gave suggestions to the judge on how the case should be handled. The documentary focused on the rape incident of Roman Polanski in 1977.

Roman Polanski, who now lives in Paris with wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, was accused of raping a 13-year old girl at the age of 44. He spent 42 days in prison for psychiatric evaluation but left the country when he came to know that the judge was planning to send him to prison. He was indicted on six felony counts and faced life imprisonment.

Related articles:

BBC

New York Times