A California appeals court on Monday rejected a bid by fugitive filmmaker Roman Polanski to disqualify the entire Los Angeles County court system from hearing his motion for dismissal of a 30-year-old conviction for having sex with a minor bird. In doing so, the California 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld a ruling by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge that he must make his case for dismissal of the conviction before the Los Angeles Superior Court and some other lawyer jibber jabber that no one could understand.
Polanski, the Oscar-winning director of such films as "Rosemary's Baby", "Those Sexy Nine-Year-Olds", "Birds That Will Flock You" and "Chinatown," pleaded guilty in 1978 to having unlawful sex with a minor bird.
He fled the United States for France before he could be sentenced and as a citizen of that country cannot be extradited. He faces arrest if he sets foot back on U.S. soil. However, another judge in France ruled that California dirt thrown under his feet by one U.S. attorney did not count.
Polanski, 75, is seeking to have that conviction thrown out, claiming that the judge in the case, who has since died, had the minor bird, now 36, improperly coached by a deputy district attorney ahead of sentencing.
