New Polanski appeal cites improper court dealings
AFP
LOS ANGELES- Filmmaker Roman Polanski has launched a fresh appeal to drop child sex charges from the 1970s, offering details of what his lawyers called improper dealings by prosecutors and the judge, court documents showed Friday.
Polanski's lawyers petitioned a California appellate court, citing secret "communication" between two top officials in the district attorney's office and the original judge in the case, Laurence Rittenband.
Roman Polanski (AFP/File/Abdelhak Senna)
Because of these irregularities, "The need for this court's immediate review is compelling," Polanski lawyers Chad Hummel and Bart Dalton wrote in their petition.
The attorneys cited an "urgent need for a full evidentiary hearing" into alleged misconduct by Judge Rittenband.
Polanski is under house arrest in Switzerland and has been held since September on a US arrest warrant for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl three decades ago.
Swiss authorities have yet to rule on whether to grant a US request to extradite him.
Polanski, 76, has already asked that the charges be dropped because the trial was unfair, but a court rejected that request in December.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker fled the United States 32 years ago before being sentenced in the child sex case. He had been living in France until his arrest last year in Switzerland.
Polanski is alleged to have given his victim champagne and drugs during a 1977 photo shoot at the Hollywood Hills home of actor friend Jack Nicholson before having sex with her despite her protests.
He was initially charged with six felony counts, including rape and sodomy. The charge was later reduced to unlawful sexual intercourse after a plea deal agreed in part to spare his victim the ordeal of a trial.
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