Roman Polanski’s attorneys seek to have sex abuse case dismissed

More than three decades after filmmaker Roman Polanski fled Los Angeles for France to avoid sentencing in the sexual assault of a teenager, his attorneys have opened a new front in the legal saga aimed at having all charges against the Oscar-winning director dismissed.

Polanski’s legal team, which now includes celebrity attorney Alan M. Dershowitz, is making accusations of prosecutorial misconduct in its effort to end the case, which has kept the director out of the United States as well as many countries with which the U.S. has extradition treaties since he fled in 1978.

In court papers filed Monday in Los Angeles, Polanski’s attorneys allege that district attorneys and judges carried out “serious misconduct” in an effort to prosecute, and later, force the return of the famed director.

The 133-page motion seeks an evidentiary hearing to determine whether “pervasive” misconduct and a “false” extradition request sent Oct. 28, 2014, by the Department of Justice to the Polish government requires dismissal of the case against Polanski.

A spokesman for the L.A. County district attorney’s office was not available for comment Monday night.

The motion revives a sensational case that began in 1977, when Polanski was charged with raping and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl during a photo shoot.

In a plea deal, the Polish-born director pleaded guilty to one count of statutory rape, but he was never formally sentenced.

He spent a month-and-a half in state prison for psychological diagnostic testing, but the night before his sentencing, he fled to Europe after learning from his attorney that the judge planned to have him serve additional time in prison.

Monday’s motion centers on an attempt in October to arrest Polanski while he was attending the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews in Warsaw.

Polanski’s attorneys say the extradition request omits that he served court-ordered prison time because prosecutors were trying to align the case history to meet the criteria of an extradition treaty between the United States and Poland.

Twitter: @MattHjourno