(from http://www.nytimes.com/)
By MICHAEL CIEPLY
Published: July 17, 2008
LOS ANGELES — Will Roman Polanski be bailed out, finally, by a film?
Mr. Polanski, the director of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown,” fled the United States 30 years ago on the eve of being sentenced for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. Now, Mr. Polanski and his lawyer have asked the Los Angeles district attorney’s office to review a new documentary in which a former deputy district attorney claims to have coached the judge in the case.
In the film, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” the former prosecutor, David Wells, describes advising Judge Laurence J. Rittenband to send Mr. Polanski to prison for a psychiatric review, though Mr. Wells was not involved with the case.
Mr. Wells also points out to the judge, who died in 1993, what Mr. Wells considered defiant behavior by Mr. Polanski. Mr. Wells, in an interview in the film, says he showed Judge Rittenband a photograph of Mr. Polanski with two girls taken in Germany before his sentencing. “ ‘Judge,’ I said, ‘Look here. He’s flipping you off,’ ” Mr. Wells recalled.
Mr. Polanski has been a fugitive since 1978 when he fled to France to avoid a possible prison sentence or deportation.
In a phone interview on Tuesday, his lawyer, Douglas Dalton, said Mr. Wells’s self-described contacts with the judge appeared to violate California law and legal ethics. At the time, Mr. Wells worked in the Santa Monica courthouse of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, but, after some initial involvement, he was not assigned to the Polanski case.
“There could be a motion to dismiss based on prosecutorial misconduct,” Mr. Dalton said.
“We want to develop information about the extent of the ex parte contacts, what other communications Wells had, whether anybody else was aware of them, that sort of thing.”
In general, Mr. Dalton acknowledged, fugitives have little standing to press conventional appeals. But, he said, California law would permit either a judge or the prosecutor’s office to seek remedies on behalf of Mr. Polanski, including dismissal of the case, if either believed the judicial process had been corrupted.
Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles district attorney, Stephen L. Cooley, said she was not aware of any plan by Mr. Cooley’s office to change its stance in the case because of Mr. Wells’s comments.
In a phone interview from his home on Tuesday, Mr. Wells denied that his contact with the judge had been improper, saying it occurred in open court during routine discussions of cases.
“I didn’t tell him to do it or that he should do it,” Mr. Wells said of the judge’s decision to put Mr. Polanski in prison for 42 days for psychiatric review. “I just told him what his options were.”
Charles Whitebread, a law professor at the University of Southern California, said it would be unusual for a judge to reopen the case. “That’s not to say that it wouldn’t be justified or couldn’t happen,” he said.
In an e-mail message this week, Mr. Polanski, 74, said he would not make any decisions until Mr. Dalton had finished reviewing Mr. Wells’s actions. “I’m not ruling anything out,” he said. “I believe that closure of that entire matter is long overdue.”
By MICHAEL CIEPLY
Published: July 17, 2008
LOS ANGELES — Will Roman Polanski be bailed out, finally, by a film?
Mr. Polanski, the director of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown,” fled the United States 30 years ago on the eve of being sentenced for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. Now, Mr. Polanski and his lawyer have asked the Los Angeles district attorney’s office to review a new documentary in which a former deputy district attorney claims to have coached the judge in the case.
In the film, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” the former prosecutor, David Wells, describes advising Judge Laurence J. Rittenband to send Mr. Polanski to prison for a psychiatric review, though Mr. Wells was not involved with the case.
Mr. Wells also points out to the judge, who died in 1993, what Mr. Wells considered defiant behavior by Mr. Polanski. Mr. Wells, in an interview in the film, says he showed Judge Rittenband a photograph of Mr. Polanski with two girls taken in Germany before his sentencing. “ ‘Judge,’ I said, ‘Look here. He’s flipping you off,’ ” Mr. Wells recalled.
Mr. Polanski has been a fugitive since 1978 when he fled to France to avoid a possible prison sentence or deportation.
In a phone interview on Tuesday, his lawyer, Douglas Dalton, said Mr. Wells’s self-described contacts with the judge appeared to violate California law and legal ethics. At the time, Mr. Wells worked in the Santa Monica courthouse of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, but, after some initial involvement, he was not assigned to the Polanski case.
“There could be a motion to dismiss based on prosecutorial misconduct,” Mr. Dalton said.
“We want to develop information about the extent of the ex parte contacts, what other communications Wells had, whether anybody else was aware of them, that sort of thing.”
In general, Mr. Dalton acknowledged, fugitives have little standing to press conventional appeals. But, he said, California law would permit either a judge or the prosecutor’s office to seek remedies on behalf of Mr. Polanski, including dismissal of the case, if either believed the judicial process had been corrupted.
Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles district attorney, Stephen L. Cooley, said she was not aware of any plan by Mr. Cooley’s office to change its stance in the case because of Mr. Wells’s comments.
In a phone interview from his home on Tuesday, Mr. Wells denied that his contact with the judge had been improper, saying it occurred in open court during routine discussions of cases.
“I didn’t tell him to do it or that he should do it,” Mr. Wells said of the judge’s decision to put Mr. Polanski in prison for 42 days for psychiatric review. “I just told him what his options were.”
Charles Whitebread, a law professor at the University of Southern California, said it would be unusual for a judge to reopen the case. “That’s not to say that it wouldn’t be justified or couldn’t happen,” he said.
In an e-mail message this week, Mr. Polanski, 74, said he would not make any decisions until Mr. Dalton had finished reviewing Mr. Wells’s actions. “I’m not ruling anything out,” he said. “I believe that closure of that entire matter is long overdue.”
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