Polanski loses bid to move case
2009-01-10 18:02
Los Angeles - Fugitive filmmaker Roman Polanski on Friday lost his bid to disqualify the Los Angeles County court system from considering his motion to dismiss a 30-year-old charge of unlawful sex with a minor.
Lawyers for the Oscar-winning director behind such classics
as Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown filed court papers this week requesting the case be referred to the California Judicial Council for "selection of an impartial, out-of-county" judge.
But Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza
ruled the defence motion "discloses no legal grounds for
disqualification" and was therefore "ordered stricken".
Polanski's lawyers filed a separate motion in December
seeking to dismiss the 30-year-old case altogether, citing
"extraordinary new evidence" of prosecutorial and judicial
misconduct.
LA judge in case improperly coached
A hearing on that motion is set for January 21, but Polanski's
lawyers have said he has no plans to return for the proceeding.
The District Attorney's Office filed its formal response on
Tuesday opposing a dismissal.
Polanski, 75, an Academy Award winner in 2003 for directing the Holocaust drama The Pianist, fled the United States for
France in 1978 as he was about to be sentenced for his guilty plea on charges of having unlawful sex with an underage girl.
He already had spent 42 days incarcerated for psychiatric
evaluation and became convinced the judge intended to send him
back to prison, contrary to the plea deal he had reached.
A citizen of his native France, Polanski cannot be
extradited but faces arrest as a fugitive from justice the
moment he sets foot on US soil.
His bid to dismiss the matter stems from claims that the
now-dead Los Angeles judge in the case was improperly coached
by a deputy district attorney, David Wells, since retired,
ahead of sentencing.
- Reuters