DOCUMENT: Crime

Polanski Seeks Sex Case Dismissal

Court filing offers more tawdry details about director/predator

Roman Polanski

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Polanski Seeks Sex Case Dismissal

DECEMBER 3--Thirty years after admitting he had sex with a 13-year-old girl, Roman Polanski is seeking a dismissal of his criminal case.

In a 239-page motion filed yesterday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the Academy Award winner alleges that a prosecutor and trial judge engaged in "repeated, unlawful and unethical misconduct." To support this claim, the 75-year-old Polanski points to the 2008 documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," which argued that his prosecution was marred by duplicitous and unethical behavior on the part of Judge Lawrence Rittenband and David Wells, a deputy district attorney.

As seen below, Polanski's motion includes a fascinating probation report prepared following his guilty plea on a charge of unlawful intercourse with a minor (he famously skipped his 1978 sentencing in favor of a flight to Europe, where he remains a fugitive). Coupled with the grand jury testimony of the young victim--with whom Polanski had sex in Jack Nicholson's Los Angeles home--the probation report provides an unsettling account of Polanski's predatory behavior.

The document notes that a remorseful Polanski told detectives that sex with the girl "was very spontaneous" and that, "I withdrew before climax." However, "upon the advice of his attorney, defendant did not discuss the allegations of either oral or anal intercourse."

Investigators also interviewed actress Angelica Huston, who was present in Nicholson's home while Polanski was sequestered in a bedroom with the child. Huston said the teenager "didn't appear to be distressed," adding that "she seemed sullen, which I thought was a little rude." Asked about the girl's age, Huston replied, "she appeared to be one of those kind of little chicks between, could be between any age up to 25." Huston added, "She did not look like a 13-year-old little scared thing."

While doubting that Polanski "would sodomize, forcibly sodomize and rape an unwilling girl," Huston remarked, "I don't think he's a bad man...I think he's an unhappy man."

A court hearing on Polanski's dismissal motion is scheduled for January 21. (29 pages)