Famed and controversial director Roman Polanski may be returning to the United States, over 39 years after he fled.
A new report in TMZ said Roman will attempt to enter the U.S. and end his child rape case for good without jail time, taking the cue from a Polish judge who once said Roman had paid his dues.
In 1977, Roman was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl. In 1978 he fled the U.S. on the eve of his sentencing, and authorities have had a warrant for his arrest since then.
Now, according to TMZ, Roman's lawyer Harland Braun has asked a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge to unseal a long-secret transcript of the testimony of the prosecutor in the case. The belief is that the testimony supports Roman's claims that he cut a deal to serve only 48 days behind bars and the judge signed off.
The Oscar-winning director actually spent 42 days in Chino State Prison and was released. As the story goes, the judge in the case in 1978 allegedly changed his mind on the plea deal agreed to by the prosecutors and decided not to accept it (judges can do this, but it's an uncommon practice). Upon hearing this, Roman fled to Europe rather than spending 50 years in prison, the prison sentence that the judge was reportedly going to impose.
Roman actually was in custody for 11 months in Switzerland as authorities tried to extradite him to no avail.
A Polish court ruled that Roman has served his time under the plea deal and let him go. The hope for Roman and his attorney is that an L.A. judge will honor that same Polish ruling.
Since he fled and became a U.S. fugitive Roman has not been able to visit the California grave of his late wife Sharon Tate, who was famously murdered at the hands of the Charles Manson clan while the director was out of town. Roman has also not been able to visit his daughter in London.
In 2013, Samantha Geimer came forward as the victim in case. She wrote a book about her experience, claiming she recovered the alleged incident years ago. She has said she would like the case closed with no additional jail time of the director.