Polanski wants sex case moved from L.A.

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Roman Polanski's attorneys have asked that a decades-old sex offense case against the French filmmaker be handled by a judge outside of Los Angeles.

The director fled the United States after pleading guilty in 1978 to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. He has never returned, not even to collect his Oscar for "The Pianist" a few years ago, and a warrant for his arrest remains in effect.

Polanski's lawyers last month filed a motion to have the case dismissed, due largely to statements made in the 2008 HBO documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired."

The motion for dismissal is based on what Polanski's attorneys have described as "extraordinary new evidence" of "repeated, unlawful and unethical misconduct" by the Los Angeles district attorney's office and the judge involved in Polanski's case.

CNN said Polanski's lawyers contend the original judge in Polanski's case was "illegally influenced" by a prosecutor and that he violated the terms of Polanski's plea agreement by ignoring the recommendations for leniency made by the chief prosecutor, a probation officer and the victim's family and sentencing the filmmaker to prison.

Polanski's attorneys filed additional paperwork Monday asking that a non-Los Angeles judge decide their motion because, they say, the 75-year-old filmmaker won't be treated fairly by the Los Angeles County Superior Court system, CNN said.