A California appeals court has ordered that sealed testimony from Roman Polanski’s 1970s child rape case be opened, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón announced Wednesday.
The court order will allow the release of the transcripts of secret testimony by Roger Gunson (a former Deputy District attorney who led the prosecution against Polanski) after he confessed to drugging and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
Polanski reached a plea agreement despite the severity of his crime. He would have to plead guilty unlawful sex with minors and receive a mandatory evaluation followed by probation. In return, Polanski would not face any more serious charges like rape via drug. He was allowed to leave the country during this time to work on a movie.
In 1978, Polanski discovered that Laurence Rittenband (the presiding judge) had reexamined the plea agreement. He was planning to sentence the director to a more severe sentence. Polanski fled the country in 1978 and has lived in France most of his life.
Polanski’s legal team alleges that the Rittenband was inappropriately influenced by a public opinion and by ex parte statements made by Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney David Wells, and that Gunson’s testimony might bear this out.
“We are pleased that today in the Roman Polanski case, the appellate court ordered the unsealing of the conditional deposition transcript of former Deputy District Attorney Roger Gunson. This decision comes less than 48 hours after we submitted a letter rescinding our objection to the release,” Gascón said in a statement.
“We are pleased the appellate court agreed with both the victim and our office about the need for transparency. The court’s decision helped us move toward upholding our responsibility to tell the public the truth, and to listen to survivors. We hope it gives her a small measure of assurance that eventually, she can have some measure of closure in this decades-long litigation,” Gascón continued.
There was no timetable for the desealing.