Ten days before his lawyer squares off against the Los Angles County District Attorney’s Office in a downtown hearing that could open the door to Roman Polanski returning the U.S., the director’s legal representative today basically demanded the courts put up or shut up.
“Mr. Polanski asks this Court to acknowledge that he was promised a specific custody portion of his sentence by Judge Rittenband and he has more than fulfilled the custody portion of his sentence under the principle of comity, California law and the admissions by the District Attorney to the Polish Court,” said a proposed order filed by attorney Harland Braun Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court. “With such assurance by this current Court, Mr. Polanski will return to Los Angeles to be sentenced,” the paperwork adds of the 1977 rape of a 13-year old girl.
Braun promises that if he’ll see no more jail time, 83-year old Polanski will absolutely come back to America and deal directly with the fugitive warrant that’s been out for him since he fled U.S. Justice in 1978.
Polanski skipped town late one night that year after believing that a judicial promise the controversial Chinatown director would only spend 90 days in a psychiatric evaluation for admitting his misconduct was about to be reneged on. Having been convicted on five charges stemming from having sex with 13-year-old Samantha Gailey on March 10, 1977, Polanski was informed that Judge Laurence Rittenband had a change of heart and wanted to throw him behind bars for up to 50-years.
The Gunson testimony is believed to contain information on that initial agreement and Rittenband’s shift in the matter.
This latest salvo in the nearly 40-year case comes as the February 16 request by Polanski’s side to unseal an ex-deputy prosecutor’s 2010 testimony in the matter would be argued before LASC Judge Scott Gordon on March 20. After L.A. County D.A. Jackie Lacey office rejected opening up Roger Gunson’s testimony at the beginning of this month, Polanski’s lawyer “abandoned,” in their own words, the effort.
Today’s filing is a new avenue in trying to get the legal system to bend to the Oscar winner’s will in the matter.
Part of Braun’s argument for his client is that U.S. Courts should give credence to a December 2016 decision by Poland’s Supreme Court to uphold a previous ruling by a lower court in the country of Polanski’s birth that rejected a 2015 extradition request by the U.S. Besides the Polish courts rulings, the last 10-years has also seen a prolonged and botched 2009 case to extradite Polanski to face American justice, back when Steve Cooley was still L.A. County D.A. In 2014, Alan Dershowitz unsuccessfully attempted to have the Polanski case dropped for the director.
Now we will see if there is any string left to pull in that matter on March 20.
