Roman Polanski files appeal in effort to have sex case dropped

Los Angeles Times ^ | July 8, 2009 | Victoria Kim

[nickcarraway]

Roman Polanski’s attorneys have asked a state appeals court to overturn the May ruling of an L.A. judge refusing to throw out Polanski’s 32-year-old child sex case while the director remains a fugitive.

In May, L.A. Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza rejected a request by Polanski’s attorneys for a dismissal of the director’s criminal case based on allegations of unethical and improper acts by a judge and prosecutor at the time of Polanski’s original case in 1977.

Espinoza said in an earlier hearing that even though he thought “substantial” misconduct had taken place, he had no choice but to deny the request unless Polanski appears in person before the court. In a writ filed Tuesday with the 2nd District Court of Appeals, attorneys for Polanski, now 75, wrote that Espinoza was legally wrong in rejecting the director’s bid for dismissal of his case based on the “fugitive disentitlement doctrine.”

Because the actions of the same court and prosecutor’s office forced Polanski to flee to escape illegal imprisonment, the court is relying on a “Catch-22” to stop an inquiry into its own misconduct, attorneys contended.

The L.A. courts and district attorney’s office “have been clear that they have no interest in addressing and remedying the misconduct that took place, perhaps seeking to avoid the anticipated political fallout,” attorneys Chad Hummel, Douglas Dalton and Bart Dalton wrote. Polanski has indicated through his lawyers that he has no intention of returning to the U.S. The writ argues that a hearing into the misconduct in the case could take place in Polanski’s absence because the director has no personal knowledge of the alleged illegal acts by the judge and prosecutor.

[StormEye]

"He had sex with Sharon Tate, right?"

Of course he did. Sharon Tate was pregnant with his child when the Manson gang murdered her and her friends that night.

[ccmay]

“He didn’t just sleep with her, he drugged her and raped her.”

He didn’t just drug her and rape her, he sodomized her too. It says a lot about the Hollywood crowd that they would lionize a man who was convicted of giving a 13 year old girl booze and quaaludes so he could bugger her. Kind of like the way they idolized the pedophile pervert Jackson. They were ARTISTS, after all. To a certain kind of leftist, any crime is forgivable if you call it art, or an inspiration for your art.

[chae]

Have you seen the coverage of Micheal Jackson lately?

[Perdogg]

She was also friends with author Jerzy Kosinski, he just missed being killed by Manson. I wonder if this contributed to his depression that led to his suicide.