Attorneys for director Roman Polanski tried again this week to get their client sentenced from afar for his 1977 conviction on a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. The legal team took its case to the state's 2nd District court of appeal and urged an “immediate review” of their request.

And once again Polanski's lawyers brought up the prospect of alleged misconduct between the case's judge, Laurence Rittenband, and then-deputy District Attorney David Wells, who stated in the HBO documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired that he had encouraged the judge in back-room meetings to sentence the director to 90 more days of “diagnostic testing” despite a deal Polasnki had in place to walk after serving 42 days under psychiatric evaluation.

In 1978, as he faced the prospect of serving more time after having been led to believe he would be free, Polanski fled to France. Last summer he was nabbed in Switzerland, where he had traveled to accept an award. He's been under house arrest there as L.A. authorities work on extradition.

Polanski's filing also noted that the prosecutor on the case had tried to get the judge dismissed from the case.

In January a Superior Court judge denied a similar request to allow the director to be sentenced “in absentia.” Polanski's lawyers hope that he will be sentenced for time served, which would allow him to return to L.A. without facing handcuffs.

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