Ex-prosecutor: US Judge Planned to Renege on Polanski Deal

Director Roman Polanski appears at an international film festival, where he promoted his film, "Based on a True Story," in Krakow, Poland, on May 2, 2018. (AP)
Director Roman Polanski appears at an international film festival, where he promoted his film, "Based on a True Story," in Krakow, Poland, on May 2, 2018. (AP)
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Ex-prosecutor: US Judge Planned to Renege on Polanski Deal

Director Roman Polanski appears at an international film festival, where he promoted his film, "Based on a True Story," in Krakow, Poland, on May 2, 2018. (AP)
Director Roman Polanski appears at an international film festival, where he promoted his film, "Based on a True Story," in Krakow, Poland, on May 2, 2018. (AP)

A Los Angeles judge privately told lawyers he would renege on a plea deal and imprison Roman Polanski for having sex with a teenage girl in 1977, a former prosecutor testified, setting the stage for the renowned director to flee the US as a fugitive.

A previously sealed transcript obtained late Sunday by The Associated Press late Sunday of testimony by retired Deputy District Attorney Roger Gunson supports Polanski’s claim that he fled on the eve of sentencing in 1978 because he didn’t think he was getting a fair deal.

Gunson said during closed-door testimony in 2010 that he wasn't surprised Polanski fled after the judge had broken several promises made to his defense lawyer.

"The judge had promised him on two occasions ... something that he reneged on," Gunson said. "So it wasn’t surprising to me that, when he was told he was going to be sent off to state prison ... that he could not or would not trust the judge."

Defense lawyer Harland Braun said Friday - in expectation of the transcript's release - that the development would renew his effort to have Polanski sentenced in absentia, which would end his status as a fugitive from justice.

Braun has unsuccessfully tried that before with prosecutors asserting and judges agreeing that Polanski needs to show up in Los Angeles Superior Court to resolve the matter.

Release of the transcript, which was ordered by a California appeals court Wednesday after Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón dropped longstanding objections his predecessors made to its release, may support Polanski's claims that he was going to be railroaded by a corrupt judge.

The legal saga has played on both sides of the Atlantic as a recurring scene over four decades of a life marred by tragedy and also triumph.

As a child, Polanski escaped the Krakow Ghetto during the Holocaust. His wife, Sharon Tate, was among the seven people murdered in 1969 by followers of Charles Manson.

Polanski, 88, who was nominated for Oscars for 1974′s "Chinatown" and 1979′s "Tess," won the best director statuette for "The Pianist" in 2003. But he wasn't able to accept it because he faces arrest in the US.

France, Switzerland and Poland rejected bids to extradite him back to the United States and he continues to be feted in Europe, winning praise and working with major actors. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, however, expelled him from its membership in 2018 after the "MeToo" movement spurred a reckoning about sexual misconduct.

Polanski’s 13-year-old victim testified before a grand jury that during a photo shoot at Jack Nicholson’s house in March 1977 when the actor wasn’t home, Polanski gave her champagne and part of a sedative, then forced her to have sex. The girl said she didn’t fight him because she was afraid of him but her mother later called the police.

When the girl refused to testify in court, Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor in exchange for prosecutors dropping drug, rape and sodomy charges.

Polanski has argued that there was judicial misconduct in his case. In 2010, a Los Angeles court took sealed testimony from Gunson about his recollections of promises made to the director by the judge in 1977.

Polanski’s lawyers, who were in the room during Gunson's testimony but couldn't use it in court, have long sought to unseal that transcript to help their case.

Judge Laurence Rittenband, now deceased, had been swayed by publicity in the case and changed his mind several times about the punishment Polanski should face, Braun said.

After a report by probation officials that Polanski should serve no time behind bars, Rittenband sent the director for a further 90-day evaluation in state prison.

After 42 days of evaluation in prison, Polanski was released with a recommendation he only serve probation, Braun said.

But the judge then privately told lawyers he had to be tougher because of criticism in the news media. He said he would send Polanski to prison for a longer term but would then get him released within 120 days, which was possible under sentencing rules.

"Roman says, ‘How can I trust the judge that’s lied twice?’ So he takes off to Europe," Braun said.

Gunson acknowledged during his testimony that the judge had discretion to sentence Polanski to any term because there had been no agreed-upon sentence. But he felt Rittenband had broken promises to Polanski.

The victim, Samantha Geimer, has long advocated that the case be dismissed or that Polanski be sentenced in absentia. She went so far as as to travel from her home in Hawaii to Los Angeles five years ago to urge a judge to end "a 40-year sentence which has been imposed on the victim of a crime as well as the perpetrator."

"I implore you to consider taking action to finally bring this matter to a close as an act of mercy to myself and my family," Geimer said.

The Associated Press does not typically name victims of sex abuse, but Geimer went public years ago and wrote a memoir titled "The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski." The cover features a photo shot by Polanski.

Polanski agreed to pay Geimer over $600,000 to settle a lawsuit in 1993.

Geimer, who has pressed for investigation of judicial misconduct, asked that the transcript be unsealed and in a letter last month and urged the DA’s office to take a fresh look at the case.

Prosecutors have consistently objected to releasing the material but relented earlier this week to honor Geimer’s wishes and be transparent with the public.

"This case has been described by the courts as ‘one of the longest-running sagas in California criminal justice history,’" Gascón said in a statement. "For years, this office has fought the release of information that the victim and public have a right to know."

However, the DA did not indicate that Polanski would be able to avoid a court appearance. The press release said Polanski remains a fugitive and should surrender to the court for sentencing.



George Lucas Brings the Force to Comic-Con in Historic First Visit 

US filmmaker George Lucas speaks during the Sneak Peek of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art panel in Hall H of the convention center during Comic-Con International in San Diego, California on July 27, 2025. (AFP)
US filmmaker George Lucas speaks during the Sneak Peek of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art panel in Hall H of the convention center during Comic-Con International in San Diego, California on July 27, 2025. (AFP)
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George Lucas Brings the Force to Comic-Con in Historic First Visit 

US filmmaker George Lucas speaks during the Sneak Peek of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art panel in Hall H of the convention center during Comic-Con International in San Diego, California on July 27, 2025. (AFP)
US filmmaker George Lucas speaks during the Sneak Peek of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art panel in Hall H of the convention center during Comic-Con International in San Diego, California on July 27, 2025. (AFP)

Comic-Con fans pulled out their lightsabers Sunday to welcome "Star Wars" creator George Lucas to the prominent pop culture convention for the very first time.

Attendees lined up for hours to grab a seat inside the 6,500-person capacity venue in San Diego, California to see the legendary filmmaker behind the "Indiana Jones" franchise speak at the event on its final day.

Comic-Con, which draws some 130,000 attendees, has become an important platform for movie studios and their stars to showcase the latest film and television offerings, especially those with a genre fan base.

"We've been waiting five decades for this!" said panel moderator Queen Latifah, who oversaw the discussion by Lucas and other filmmakers.

Instead of discussing his film works, however, Lucas graced the convention to preview the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art -- opening in Los Angeles in 2026 -- which the director co-founded with his wife, businesswoman Mellody Hobson.

"I've been collecting art since I was in college," Lucas, 81, told the crowd, adding that he has amassed tens of thousands of pieces in his collection.

"I've been doing this for 50 years now, and then it occurred to me that what am I going to do with it all because I, I refuse to sell it.

"I could never do that, it's just, it's not what I think art is -- I think it's more about an emotional connection," the director said.

In his description of the museum, Lucas said the institution will feature a blend of works.

They include illustrations by Normal Rockwell, Jessie Willcox Smith and N.C. Wyeth; artworks by Frida Kahlo, Jacob Lawrence, Charles White and Robert Colescott; and pieces by cartoonists and artists like Winsor McCay, Frank Frazetta and Jack Kirby.

The museum, housed in a sleek, curved building, will also feature items from Lucas's films and other exclusive pieces.

For the "Star Wars" mastermind, the museum aims to be a tribute to the importance of narrative art.

"When you're born, the baseline is fear. And as you go through life, you're curious about things, but you're especially curious about things you don't understand, and therefore that's a threat to you.

"And as a result, you make up stories to make it feel good," he continued.

"Science fiction is a myth... but we've made it real because of science fiction books and art."

- 'A critical moment' -

Among the other members of the panel were Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro and production designer Doug Chiang, who shaped the aesthetic of the "Star Wars" universe for decades.

"What's remarkable about George is that he leads from the heart, and this museum is him," Chiang said.

Del Toro, who will release his latest film "Frankenstein" in November, said many of the museum's pieces will celebrate freedom of speech.

"We are in a critical moment in which one of the things they like to disappear is the past, you know, and this is memorializing a popular, vociferous, expressive and eloquent moment in our visual past that belongs to all of us," Del Toro said.

The fantasy filmmaker also described comics as a medium with "a lot of social conscience" and joked that comic artists "were the first one to punch a Nazi" in their works.

"What a panel!" said attendee Jesse Goldwater, who traveled to San Diego from Los Angeles.

"They are the embodiment of Comic-Con itself, without them Comic-Con wouldn't exist."