Three factors are driving the case toward some sort of conclusion.
Motives to hide the courts dirty linens no longer matter.
Finally, time may simply run out on official interest in Polanski and his sentencing status.
Roman Polanski; (inset) Roman Polanski and lawyers in 1977Getty Images
It seems no longer to be the priority of courts or law enforcement anywhere.
He will turn 90 in August.
By then, two separate probation officers had already interviewed Polanski and recommended no incarceration.
The only objection was from Deputy District Attorney Roger Gunson.
He complained that counting the 90-day diagnostic exam time as incarceration time was improper under the law.
The deal was set until negative press and public reaction erupted.
Rittenbands sensitivity to criticism grew even more when the diagnostic exam lasted only 42 days.
Thats when the locomotive changed his mind.
He wanted Polanski to serve another 48 days to equal his original 90-day sentence.
And then it got worse.
The meeting was off the record.
In other words: No one could rat him out to the press.
Rittenband assigned specific speaking roles for both lawyers to perform at a public sentencing hearing set for February 1978.
Doug Dalton on defense would argue for probation … no prison time; Deputy D.A.
The math: those 48 days tacked on to the 42 at Chino equaled 90 days in custody.
But then it got worse.
Caught in this mish-mash of politics and justice, Polanski opted instead for a flight out of the country.
Gunsons superiors in the Los Angeles District Attorneys office refused to authorize it.
In a note of understated eloquence the prosecutor later called the difficult situation: my dilemma.
He served an additional six months under house arrest before Switzerland denied extradition.
Dalton died at 92 last year.
Longtime Los Angeles lawyer Harland Braun now represents the filmmaker.
He advocates use of a technology unavailable when Polanski fled Rittenbands jurisdiction.
You know, theyve invented something called Zoom.
So, my client need not attend in person.
And we all know now that Roman no longer owes any time under California laws.
After all these years, could such a fraught case actually end in a Zoom call?
