Lawyers for 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 wrong-doing 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.
The documentary, which was seen on HBO and released by ThinkFilm earlier this year, examined Mr. Polanski's arrest in 1977 for having sex with a 13-year-old girl, and subsequent conviction after pleading guilty to one count of having sex with a minor.
Mr. Polanski spent 42 days in state prison during a psychiatric evaluation, but fled the country on the eve of sentencing in 1978 after learning that the judge, Laurence J. Rittenband, planned to send him back to prison. Now 75 years old, Mr. Polanski has since lived in Paris.
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