Wow, this is kind of big.
Did Roman Polanski finally watch the Marina Zenovich directed documentary about himself and his now 30-year-old statutory rape case, “Roman Polanski: Wanted & Desired“? (he had decided to not be involved and had claimed a few months ago that he had not seen it)
Does the exiled filmmaker who has been a fugitive of U.S. since 1978 want back in the States or at least to have his name partly cleared?
Could be, as he’s asking the L.A. prosecutors to review the film. According to the NYTimes, “Mr. Polanski and his lawyer have asked the Los Angeles district attorney’s office to review [the aforementioned documentary] in which a former deputy district attorney claims to have coached the judge in the case.”
The Judge in the case, Laurence J. Rittenband died in 1993 and the documentary shows many, many pretty blatant ethical and legal improprieties on his part that even the prosecuting lawyer at the time took umbrage with (as depicted first hand in the doc from his interviews, he had major problems with the way Rittenband handled himself).
Polanski’s lawyer Douglas Dalton, the same lawyer who defended the director in ’78, told the Times. “There could be a motion to dismiss based on prosecutorial misconduct.”
As the Times notes former prosecutor, David Wells himself describes that he advised Judge Rittenband to send Mr. Polanski to prison for a psychiatric review, though Mr. Wells was not involved with the case and these moves and suggestions could have been dubiously legal (if not obviously illegal) . “We want to develop information about the extent of the ex parte contacts, what other communications Wells had, whether anybody else was aware of them, that sort of thing,” Dalton said.
The Times also contacted Wells who denied that his contact with the judge had been improper. “I didn’t tell him to do it or that he should do it. “I just told him what his options were.”
Though it seems doubtful whether the case could be reopened after all this time and fugitives have little standing to press conventional appeals, Polanski himself wrote in an email to the Gray Lady. “I’m not ruling anything out,” he said. “I believe that closure of that entire matter is long overdue.”
Could a documentary feature reverse the decision of the law? Wouldn’t be the first time. Erroll Morris’ “The Thin Blue Line,” did exactly that.