POLANSKI REQUESTS UNSEALING OF CORRUPTION EVIDENCE

Following our breaking report of a Los Angeles Appeals Court panel ruling refusing to unseal recent testimony pointing to possible skulduggery by (former) prosecutors and the (now dead) sentencing judge, the fugitive director has now made that explicit request in the trial court.

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The appeals panel was reluctant to grant Polanski's request, on the technical ground that Polanski's lawyers had not yet formally made the unsealing request to the trial judge before presenting his "writ' application (which is a form of prejudgment request for appellate review that is heard on the merits in a tiny percentage of all cases).

Roman Polanski's lawyers asked a judge Thursday to unseal secret testimony by the original prosecutor in the director's 33-year-old sex case to help Swiss authorities decide his extradition case—LAT reporter Linda Dutch reports in a Associated Press story filed 60 minutes ago.

Attorneys Chad Hummel and Bart Dalton said they need to submit the testimony of retired Deputy District Attorney Roger Gunson to Swiss authorities who are pondering whether to extradite Polanski to the U.S. after decades as a fugitive.

The motion said the transcripts will prove the extradition request is based on false and incomplete statements by the Los Angeles district attorney's office.

"These transcripts are urgently needed," the motion said, seeking a May 10 hearing before Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza.

Gunson testified this year in what is known as a conditional examination. Such proceedings reserve the testimony of a witness who might not be available for future hearings. Espinoza kept the transcripts sealed based on his interpretation of the law governing such examinations. The defense said the interpretation is wrong.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys were present at the closed sessions in February and March, and the defense paraphrased portions of Gunson's testimony from its own notes in a petition to the state appellate court.

Defense lawyers want to provide his exact words to the Swiss authorities.

They noted the district attorney's office previously asked that all hearings and conferences in the case be public "so as to appropriately respect the public's right to know." They argued that the same right to transparency should apply now.

District attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said prosecutors would reserve any comment on the motion for its legal filings.

Meanwhile, as extensively reported here--scroll down the acclaimed septuagenarian director remains under house arrest in his Swiss residence in way-cool Gstaad.