Fighting Extradition in Child-Sex Case, Polanski Claims More Long-Ago Judicial Misconduct
Fighting to keep famed film director Roman Polanski from being extradited from Switzerland to face sentencing in a decades-old California child-sex case from which he fled following conviction, his lawyers are now making new allegations of long-ago judicial misconduct.
Among them: That the now-deceased judge in the case met in 1977 with two high-ranking Los Angeles prosecutors, who confirmed allegations of misconduct on the judge’s part by a lower-ranking prosecutor in the Polanski case but quashed his plan to move to disqualify the judge, reports the Media Decoder blog of the New York Times.
“The evidence suggests they went behind my back to confirm the misconduct with the judge himself and never informed me,” says defense attorney Douglas Dalton, who represented Polanski, in a written statement. “If proven, this is as bad as I have seen in over 50 years as a former prosecutor and lawyer in our system.”
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Roman Polanski Documentary Puts New Spin on Child Sex Crime”
ABAJournal.com: “Polanski Child-Sex Case Survives But Appeals Court Seeks Probe of Long-Ago Trial Judge”
