A former prosecutor said on Wednesday he lied when he told a documentary film crew that he advised a judge handling Roman Polanski’s sex case that he should send the director to prison.
The statement later became part of the basis for a move by Polanski’s attorneys to dismiss the case against the fugitive director, who was arrested in Switzerland on Saturday.
“They interviewed me in the Malibu courthouse when I was still a DA [district attorney] and I embellished a story,” David Wells said in an interview about his statements to the makers of Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.
“I’m a guy who cuts to the chase — I lied. It embarrasses the hell [out] of me,” he said.
Wells, 71, did not handle Polanski’s case but was assigned to the courtroom where it was heard and had frequent interactions with the judge.
Wells said he was sorry about making the comments for the documentary.
“I cost the DA’s office a lot of money and aggravation over this,” said Wells, who retired as a prosecutor more than two years ago.
Polanski was accused of plying a 13-year-old girl with champagne and a sedative drug during a modeling shoot in 1977 and raping her.
He was initially indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy.
The director pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse; in exchange, the remaining charges were dropped and the judge agreed to send Polanski to prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation. However, Polanski was released after 42 days and fled the country on the eve of his Feb. 1, 1978, sentencing after the judge reportedly told lawyers he planned to add more prison time.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS