Wells, now retired, told the documentary makers that he talked to the judge about what sentence Polanski should receive. Under the terms of the plea deal, the judge was to determine sentencing based on the recommendation of the Probation Department and the arguments of lawyers.
Both the Probation Department and the victim recommended that Polanski receive no prison time.
According to court papers, Rittenband wanted to sentence Polanski to prison time, and Wells suggested a way to ensure he spent time behind bars even without the Probation Department's say-so: A 42-day pre-sentencing "diagnostic testing" in a maximum-security prison.
Polanski served that time, but between the time of his release and the date of his sentencing, the judge indicated to lawyers that he planned to sentence him to 48 additional days in prison, according to the papers.
Polanski left the country before the sentencing and has never returned, even when he won his Academy Award for best director for "The Pianist."
The motion also cites a conversation in which Wells showed the judge a picture of Polanski celebrating Oktoberfest in Germany surrounded by women and suggested that the director was making a fool of the court.
Wells said his discussions with the judge were in no way inappropriate and dismissed the allegations as irrelevant.
"He asked us a legal question. I gave him a legal answer," he said in an interview with The Times. "It had nothing in particular to do with the Polanski case, it was a general conversation about what could be done about sentencing anybody."
Wells, who was the prosecutor on the case during the investigation and for obtaining warrants, also said the photograph he showed the judge was in a German newspaper, and the judge would have seen it whether or not he brought it into court.
"It's a guy that raped a 13-year-old girl and wants to get no prison time. If that's the case, [Polanski] should be in state prison for life. That's how I feel about it, but remember I was not the lawyer on the case," said Wells, who said he was taken off the case because he became too involved in the investigation and his office feared he might be called as a witness. "If I were the D.A. on the case, he would've been tried, and there would've been" none of these complications.
The motion also cites a 1997 negotiation involving prosecutors, Polanski's lawyers and another judge, Larry Paul Fidler. That deal for the director to surrender and immediately be released on bail fell apart.
