Entertainment> Celebrities

LA judge rejects defense bid in Polanski case

(Agencies)
2010-05-11 09:00

A Los Angeles judge on Monday rejected a request to unseal testimony that lawyers for fugitive film director Roman Polanski said would bolster his fight against extradition over a decades-old sex charge.

Lawyers for the filmmaker had argued that sealed testimony given by a prosecutor in Polanski's 1970s case would demonstrate that Los Angeles authorities had given inaccurate information in their request to extradite Polanski from Switzerland to California to face sentencing.

But Judge Peter Espinoza said after a hearing on Monday that he believes Swiss authorities "have the information they need" to make a decision on the extradition request. If they needed anything further, they could ask for it, Espinoza said.

Polanski, 76, who won an Oscar in 2002 for "The Pianist," is being detained at his home in Switzerland, where he was arrested on a U.S. warrant last year.

Los Angeles prosecutors are insisting the "Chinatown" director should return to California to be sentenced for having illegal sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

The filmmaker fled Los Angeles in 1978 believing the original judge in the case, who has since died, would renege on an agreement to limit his sentence to 42 days already served in an institution for psychiatric evaluation.

Polanski's lawyers, claiming judicial irregularities in the 1977 case, have so far failed in their bid to either have the case dismissed or have Polanski sentenced in his absence.

Their most recent claim was that prosecutors relied on "false statements" in seeking Polanski's extradition from Switzerland and had argued that releasing the sealed transcripts from testimony of one of the original prosecutors would prove their assertion.

Los Angeles prosecutors disputed the defense claim, saying the affidavit provided to the Swiss in support of Polanski's extradition is "absolutely truthful and accurate in every regard."