US: Los Angeles prosecutor allows transcripts of Roman Polanski case to be unsealed

This week, in what would be a development in the longest-running case against director Roman Polanski, prosecutors in Los Angeles announced that they would allow the release of transcripts of the statutory rape case. The release of documents this time comes as the director previously alleged that the transcripts may reveal judicial misconduct.

AFP reports that Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon issued a statement announcing the release of the sealed documents linked to the statutory rape case against Polanski. Gascon said the unsealing of the documents was “in the interest of justice to agree to the unsealing of these transcripts.”

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

Gascon noted in his statement that Polanski first requested to unseal the documents years back in order to launch a probe into possible judicial misconduct.

It remains to be seen what the sealed transcripts contain, but the documents would include the testimony of then-Deputy District Attorney Roger Gunson, who was the first prosecutor to handle Polanski’s case.

Polanski was arrested in 1977 when 13-year-old Samantha Gailey accused the director of drugging and raping her. In an effort to keep the case from going to trial, prosecutors dropped the major charges in a plea deal, and Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

The director was sentenced to 42 days in prison and to undergo psychiatric treatment. However, when it was believed that the judge was going to reconsider and give Polanski a longer sentence, Polanski fled to France and has stayed there to this day.

Aside from this legal development, prominent right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is also facing a legal battle with the families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.

The Connecticut Post reported Wednesday that Jones’s attorneys want to ban discussion of the conspiracy theorist’s political motivations, such as right-wing extremism and white supremacy, in the jury trial.

Jones is on trial after he defamed the families of the Sandy Hook victims by claiming that the massacre was “staged” and “a giant hoax” carried out by “actors.”