LOS ANGELES, CA — A California appeals court on Tuesday heard new arguments in one of the most notorious sexual abuses cases in U.S. history. At issue: Whether a fugitive from justice retains certain due process rights if he seeks them in absentia.The case at hand is that of Roman Polanski, an Academy Award-winning Hollywood director (Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, The Pianist) who in 1978 fled the U.S. in order to avoid incarceration after he pleaded guilty to having illegal sexual relations with a 13-year-old girl. Polanski, now 75, has remained at large in France since then while his attorneys continue the legal battle on his behalf.
According to Polanski’s lawyers, the judge who sentenced Polanski engaged in egregious misconduct by agreeing to a plea deal and then reneging. After the judge’s recent death, Polanski’s attorneys sought dismissal of the charges and sentence. Their request was denied under the so-called fugitive disentitlement doctrine, which holds fugitives are not entitled to certain due process provisions while they remain at large.
In other words, according to attorney Chad Hummel, had Polanski shown up in person to seek the court’s largesse, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza might have removed the legal sword of Damocles from above the director’s head. However, Polanski risks immediate arrest if he returns to U.S. soil. Therefore, Hummel told the California Second District Court of Appeal on Tuesday, Espinoza avoided a political hot potato and saved face for the court by relying on inappropriate precedent instead of entertaining the core issues of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.
“That there were clear violations of Mr. Polanski’s constitutional rights is not seriously in question,” Hummel wrote in his appellate brief. “This case is one of the most notorious and high-profile criminal cases in our state’s history. There is no reported case like it; it has lasted more than 30 years and has been infected from the outset by extraordinary misconduct.”
Hummel told The Associated Press a recent HBO documentary about Polanski’s life uncovered new information about the judge’s behavior in the 1977 sexual abuse case, and that’s what led Polanski to seek dismissal of the original charges.
Polanski seeks outright dismissal or the assignment of the dismissal request to a different venue.
