December 5, 2009
Polanski Begins House Arrest
By Nick Cumming-Bruce for the New York Times.
The director Roman Polanski was released from custody on $4.5 million bail and transferred to house arrest in the upscale ski resort of Gstaad Friday pending a judicial ruling on an American request for his extradition…
In a statement, the Swiss governmenti said: “Roman Polanski was today released from custody pending extradition and transferred to Gstaad, where he is under house arrest at his chalet. Polanski has undertaken not to leave his house and property at any time.” Swiss authorities initially took Mr. Polanski, 76, from a jail in Winterthur in northeastern Switzerland to an undisclosed location on Thursday to avoid media representatives who staked out the jail as well as the chalet in Gsaad…
Mr. Polanski will be restricted to the house and grounds of his chalet but is free to receive visitors and “whether he wants to show himself or hide in the chalet is up to him,” Mr. Galli said.
Mr. Polanski’s lawyers plan to oppose the extradition request. Mr. Galli said the decision would take “some weeks.” If the ministry approves his extradition, Mr. Polanski has 30 days in which to appeal to Switzerland’ s Supreme Court.
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November 18, 2009
Request Is Made to Bring TV Cameras Into Polanski Hearing
By Michael Cieply for the New York Times.
As a rule, oral arguments before a state court of appeals would not make for scintillating television. But a hearing in the Roman Polanski case, set for Dec. 10 in the California Court of Appeal for the Second District in Los Angeles might be an exception. The court this week notified lawyers in the case that it has received a request to permit television coverage of the hearing, and expects to receive others, based on informal queries.
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November 2, 2009
Date Set for Oral Arguments in Polanski Case
by Michael Cieply
“…a California appeals court in Los Angeles has scheduled oral arguments in its review of Roman Polanski’s three-decade-old sex case for Dec. 10.”
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September 29, 2009
Former Prosecutor of Ted Stevens Pursued Polanski
by Michael Cieply for the New York Times.
“…Nicholas Marsh, it turns out, was assigned to the office back in June, after serving as a prosecutor in the Justice Department’s failed pursuit of Ted Stevens, then a United States senator from Alaska, on ethics charges. That case fell apart when a judge found that a team of prosecutors, which included Mr. Marsh, had improperly concealed documents and committed other misconduct.
Reached briefly by phone at the office of international affairs on Monday, Mr. Marsh referred questions to the Justice Department’s media representatives. Laura Sweeney, a department spokeswoman, declined to comment.”
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February 13, 2009
L.A. Dispatch: A Sequel for ‘Wanted and Desired?’
By Michael Cieply for the NY Times
This reporter and a couple of others had come to check out a hastily scheduled hearing at which Mr. Polanski’s new lawyer, Chad Hummel, asked Judge Peter Espinoza to issue some subpoenas and round up some potential witnesses in advance of a bigger hearing scheduled for Feb. 17. Mr. Polanski wants the court to set aside the case against him, arguing, among other things, that the original judge and a deputy district attorney were improperly talking on the side about sentencing and such…
Ms. Zenovich did the reporters one better on Friday: she showed up with a camera and sound crew. Another documentary? “Cleaning up,” she said, without more explanation.
This attempt to dump the old case and end Mr. Polanski’s fugitive status has taken on some unexpected heat. Both the district attorney’s office and the Superior Court itself had public relations people on hand Friday. They appeared to outnumber the reporters, unless you count Ms. Zenovich, which evened things up.
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January 5, 2009
Polanski’s Lawyers Seek Change of Venue From Hollywood
By Michael Cieply for The New York Times
The recent attempt to have the charges against Mr. Polanski dismissed rests on claims that a superior court judge, Laurence J. Rittenband, who died in 1993, was improperly coached by a now-retired deputy district attorney. The retired deputy, David Wells, openly described his encounters the judge in a documentary film, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” which was released last year…
Mr. Polanski, in any case, chose to remain in France, where he now lives with his wife, the actress Emmanuelle Seigner, and their children. But he agreed to address the case yet again when the documentary, directed by Marina Zenovich, displayed an interview in which Mr. Wells, who frequently handled cases with Judge Rittenband, talked of having advised the judge about Mr. Polanski’s sentencing.
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December 6, 2008
Polanski files for sex-case dismissal
By Dianne Garrett for Variety
On Tuesday, attorneys for the director filed a complaint with the Los Angeles Superior Court seeking to have 31-year-old sexual misconduct charges dismissed. Fittingly enough, a docu about the filmmaker’s travails paved the way for latest attempt to clear Polanski’s name.
Polanski’s attorneys cite “extraordinary new evidence” that has surfaced with the release of Marina Zenovich’s “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” as reason to reopen the case. The complaint zeroes in on interviews in which then-deputy district attorney David Wells admits discussing the case with Judge Lawrence Rittenband during legal proceedings from the 1970s and further charges the current District Attorney’s Office with misconduct in
statements made upon the docu’s June release…
Polanski’s camp last tried to resolve the case in 1997, but those negotiations fell apart over a judge’s supposed stipulation that the hearing be televised. Zenovich revised the end card of “Wanted and Desired” at the last minute due to conflicting statements about negotiations in 1997 to resolve the case, prompting Douglas Dalton and original prosecutor Roger Gunson to accuse the District Attorney’s Office of misspeaking. The complaint accuses deputy D.A. Richard Doyle of prosecutorial misconduct due to his recent statements.
December 5, 2008
Roman Polanski’s lawyers have made a motion to dismiss the case.
See the article in the NY Times:
Film Cited in Request to Dismiss Polanski Case.
By Michael Cieply
Lawyers for the film director Roman Polanski, who fled the United States before his sentencing for statutory rape 30 years ago, asked a judge here to dismiss the case against him based on claims of judicial and prosecutorial wrongdoing revealed in a documentary film.
The request was filed with Judge David S. Wesley in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday afternoon. It cited the film “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” in which a former deputy district attorney described having coached the judge in the case, though he was not directly involved in the prosecution.
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December 5, 2008
“Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” is one of the
Top Five Documentaries of 2008 by the National Board of Review.
November 19, 2008
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, was nominated for a Gotham Award on October 20, 2008.
