Prosecutor: I Lied in Polanksi Film About Misconduct

Wells now denies coaching judge on how to send director to jail
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 1, 2009 1:47 AM CDT
Prosecutor: I Lied in Polanksi Film About Misconduct
Roman Polanski is seen in this 1980 photo.   (Getty Images)

A retired Los Angeles County prosecutor who told the creators of a documentary that he coached a judge on how to send Roman Polanski to prison despite a plea bargain now says he lied. David Wells—whose claims in Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired sparked accusations of misconduct and were at the center of Polanski's efforts to have his case dismissed—is willing to admit in court that he made it all up, he tells Marcia Clark in the Daily Beast.

“I know I shouldn’t have done it, but I did," Wells says. "The director of the documentary told me it would never air in the States. I thought it made a better story if I said I’d told the judge what to do." Wells does admit he was the one who supplied the judge with photos of Polanski partying at Oktoberfest, causing the judge to say, "Screw the deal, he’s going to state prison." Wells' admission undercuts Polanski's probable defense and makes it likelier he'll face prison in the US.
(More Roman Polanski stories.)

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