Word: california
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...Roman Polanski's recent attempts to have a decades-old statutory rape charge dropped somehow accelerate the extradition efforts that led to his arrest in Switzerland? Earlier this year, lawyers for the fugitive Oscar-winning director filed two separate documents with the California Second District Court of Appeal asking for the dismissal of all charges and alleging that the Los Angeles district attorney's office in effect benefited from Polanski's absence, because as long as he remained a fugitive, it could dodge answering allegations of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct during the case. Indeed, the lawyers alleged in the July...
...Angeles deputy district attorney, David Wells, says he met with Rittenband without the presence of defense counsel to argue for more jail time for Polanski. Wells was not himself an attorney on the case but he was a lawyer working for one of the parties, the state of California. The California Code of Judicial Ethics forbids judges to engage in ex parte communications, or discussions where only one side of a case is represented. Wells, who retired two years ago, has now recanted what he said on film, saying he "embellished" the anecdote about speaking to Rittenband about increasing Polanski...
...hearing, says Espinoza "was open to the argument that Polanski should not have to do any more jail time and that the court had been wrong to renege on the prior deal." In July, Polanski's lawyers appealed Espinoza's ruling, once again alleging misconduct and claiming California was consciously avoiding extradition efforts. And then came the Swiss arrest on the decades-old outstanding warrants...
Levenson doubts that the Swiss courts will intervene to that degree. "I don't think they can go behind the charges and challenge the conduct and the judge in California. They don't really have any facts to do that," says Levenson. "I think the most likely outcome is he's either coming back or he'll negotiate some kind of result with the DA's office...
...forced back to Los Angeles, he could face up to four years in state prison for the initial crime he pleaded guilty to before fleeing the United States. He could also face a maximum of three additional years served consecutively if the courts decide to charge him under California state penal code 3059 for leaving the state without permission. "I think it would be very unlikely that he would get that, but that's probably what's possible," says Levenson...