The Los Angeles District Attorney has until March 30 to challenge Roman Polanski's request for an inquiry into alleged prosecutorial misconduct during the director's 1977 trial for rape.   Polanski, who faces extradition to California for sentencing in that trial, filed a petition on Thursday asking the California Court of Appeals for the Second District to investigate misconduct.    The Second Appellate District on Friday formally requested the D.A.'s office to respond by March 30.   The petition says that misconduct in the case of the director, who is currently under house arrest in Switzerland on a U.S. extradition warrant for his 1978 conviction for having sex with a minor, has been "hidden by the prosecution in this case for years."

After March 30, the Court could, "request more briefs, make a decision or schedule a hearing," D.A. spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons told TheWrap.

The State Department and the Department of Justice, who are handling the extradition request, did not respond to TheWrap by deadline.   Polanski fled the United States on Feb. 1, 1978 to escape being sentenced to jail for the charges. The director, who won the Oscar for "The Pianist" in 2002, has not returned since.   On Thursday, Chad S. Hummel, Joanna S. McCallum and Bart Dalton, Polanski's lawyers, filed a 68-page petition seeking, among other things, to overturn Judge Peter Espinoza’s ruling in January that the director was a fugitive from justice and could not be sentenced without having to return to California in person. The petition claims Judge Espinoza made an error because of alleged judicial misconduct that occurred in the original case.   Roman Polanski was arrested on March 11, 1977 on six felony counts, including rape and sodomy stemming from the director providing champagne and drugs to an underage girl he was photographing the day before at Jack Nicholson's house, before having sex with her despite her request he stop. The charges were reduced to unlawful sexual intercourse after a plea deal struck in part to spare teenage Samantha Geimer the spectacle of a trial.   The director was ordered to serve a 90 day further psychiatric evaluation by Judge Lawrence Rittenband. After 42 days, Polanski was released on Jan. 28, 1978. The next day, the judge indicated to the director's then lawyers  that Polanski could be sentenced to further time behind bars. Within a week the director jumped on a plane at LAX and left America.   Swiss police at Zurich airport took Polanski into custody on Sept. 26, 2009 on the request of U.S. authorities seeking to extradite the director.   This latest appeal is seeking not just to have the director's 33-year old case a brought to a "prompt and just conclusion," but, to that end, to expose supposed secret dealings between Rittenband and high level members of the the- D.A.'s office.   The petition also states that the current D.A.'s office has known about the misconduct since 2002 and that sealed testimony given by former deputy district attorney Roger Gunson, who prosecuted Polanski in 1977, earlier this year confirms all the defense’s claims.   Polanski's legal team has long argued that the director should not be subject to extradition or further punishment because the treaty between Switzerland and the United States covers only long sentences. They claim that Judge Rittenband had agreed to a deal in which the director would only serve 90 days in jail.   Gunson's sealed testimony is alleged to confirm there was such an agreement and that Rittenband, as detailed in the 2008 documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted & Desired,” reneged on it under pressure from those in his social circles. It is the motivation of that change of heart by Rittenband that supposedly convinced Gunson that the judge couldn't be fair in the case and should be disqualified.   The Swiss have indicated they will not even consider deporting Polanski until the U.S. courts have come to a definitive ruling on the case.

Editors note: The original version of this story, published March 17, should have made clear that the March 18 court date was for a status hearing only. It also implied that the ESOP was considered employees' "chief source" of retirement income; it should have been more clear that the stock fund was intended to supplement existing plans. These changes -- and other, more minor edits -- are reflected in the version below.

As if plunging circulation, vanishing ad revenues and job losses weren't tormenting the Los Angeles Times enough, an employee lawsuit making its way through a Chicago court accuses Tribune Co. chairman Sam Zell and others of adding  a financially ruinous company-stock plan to thousands of newspaper workers' retirement plans. Lawyers representing six L.A. Times current and former writers are facing off against attorneys defending Zell and the executive team who together created an Employee Stock Ownership Plan that allegedly saddled workers with nearly $13 billion in Zell-acquired debt. Tribune Company -- the owner of the Chicago Tribune, the L.A. Times and a constellation of other print and electronic media outlets (and, until recently, the Chicago Cubs baseball team) -- was originally included as a defendant but was dismissed. The plaintiffs include former staffers Dan Neil, Henry Weinstein, Corie Brown, Walter Roche Jr., Myron Levin and Julie Makinen. At the heart of the federal suit lies a stock ownership plan that Zell, a Chicago real-estate tycoon, first proposed in early 2007, prior to his buyout of the company, and which was accepted by Tribune that April. Turning Tribune into a stock ownership plan-owned entity allowed the company to become an S-Corporation with a hugely reduced tax burden. GreatBanc, an Illinois-headquartered trust company, acted as the plan’s trustee and is now a co-defendant in the suit. The stock ownership plan was put in place for L.A. Times and other Tribune Co. employees in place of company contributions to their 401(k) plans (to which they could still make their own contributions). But while it technically made employees stockholder-owners of their company, it hardly made them masters of their destiny, the suit alleges; in reality, it says, it made them slaves to a debt generated by Zell and others. (The Tribune Co. has declined to comment on the lawsuit, while Jenner & Block, the law firm representing the defendants, did not respond to requests for interviews.) The amended complaint is a dense, 109-page document that delves into the esoteric world of pension-fund law and taxation. It boils down to two charges: The first is that Zell, along with the GreatBanc Trust Co. and 22 individuals, in moving Tribune from a publicly traded company to a private corporation solely owned by its stock ownership plan, so recklessly leveraged its purchase that it made bankruptcy inevitable and amounted to fiduciary negligence under the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act. The second charge involves violations of the security acts rules -- including one that was broken when the ownership plan purchased unregistered Tribune stock when higher-grade, marketable Tribune stock was available. The very short version of this financial arabesque says that before its sale to Zell was completed in December 2007, Tribune held a relatively manageable $4.3 billion debt. Once Zell and company got through buying up millions of allegedly overvalued shares, it had grown into a $13 billion sinkhole that forced the chain into bankruptcy court one year later and the sacking of hundreds of employees – a bloodletting that continues to this day. (Despite the enormous debt incurred during the Tribune buyout, Zell himself invested comparatively little of his own money.) The lawsuit, which will be tried as a no-jury bench trial, does not seek damages for the six plaintiffs but restitution for the corporation’s roughly 17,000 affected employees, by compelling Zell and his co-defendants to put cash back into the stock ownership plan – replacing worthless Tribune stocks with very real money, although plaintiff attorneys haven’t yet pled specific dollar-and-cent amounts. Daniel Feinberg, a lawyer with Lewis, Feinberg, Lee, Renaker & Jackson P.C., one of three law firms representing the Times plaintiffs, sees the writers’ lawsuit as running on separate but parallel tracks with the Tribune’s current bankruptcy proceedings. “The facts that give rise to both cases are essentially the same,” Feinberg told The Wrap. On Dec. 17, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer issued a suitably long and thoughtful opinion that denied the plaintiffs’ ancillary claims (Pallmeyer did not agree that Zell could be held liable as a fiduciary), but kept Zell, the chief architect of the scheme, in the proceeding as a defendant.) Essentially Pallmeyer was saying that Employee Retirement and Income Security Act rules don’t simply govern a retirement plan’s fiduciaries, or managers, but apply to all knowing parties connected to the stock ownership plan. Although Pallmeyer’s decision to keep Zell as a defendant went unreported by the Chicago Tribune (the L.A. Times gave it a 60-word squib), Feinberg took heart from it, seeing in the ruling a sympathetic judge who was very attentive to the case’s minutiae. Feinberg said Pallmeyer “indicated she is leaning our way.” The plaintiffs are also asking Pallmeyer to grant the suit class-action status, which would, among other things, allow their lawyers to include all affected Tribune employees in communications about the case. Jack Barcal, an associate professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business, says that the kind of suit filed by the Times employees is a frequent and common result of stock ownership plans imploding through the over-valuation of their stock portfolios. “The people who set up ESOPs,” Barcal told The Wrap, “know this and hire consultants at great expense – millions of dollars – to accurately evaluate the stocks” that fund the plans. Court documents filed by the defense show that Tribune used the Chicago office of Duff & Phelps to evaluate its ESOP, and produced three letters from the firm, dated April 1 and 2, 2007, and Feb. 29, 2008, attesting to the plan’s soundness. (Duff & Phelps is not a defendant in the suit.) Still, Judge Pallmeyer ruled that even an expert financial opinion backing the ESOP’s viability would not be cause to dismiss the suit against Zell and his colleagues. Barcal notes that "in 99 percent of the time these cases get settled" without going to trial. Trial or no trial, the lawsuit has placed Zell and his closest collaborators at the center of a story that could become a fable for an era of financial hubris and ruin. “Business goes in cycles,” said Feinberg. “There are bubbles, and people and valuations get out of hand. The problem is when you involve in these a pension plan -- which is supposed to be governed by a great deal of prudence, care and caution.”

Charlie Sheen pleaded not guilty Monday in Aspen to domestic violence charges, and was scheduled for a July 21 trial stemming from a Christmas Day altercation with his wife. Wearing a black suit and loosened black tie, he chatted briefly with one of the jailers providing security before the 5-minute hearing began. Though Sheen looked relaxed -- certainly moreso than when he was first charged -- he didn't speak when he appeared in Pitkin County District Court in in front Judge James Boyd.  Afterward Sheen's publicist, Stan Rosenfield, said in a statement: "Charlie is looking forward for this opportunity to clear his name."

Sheen was arrested Dec. 25 in the Colorado winter resort after police received a 911 call from his wife, Brooke Mueller, claiming the sitcom star had a knife and was threatening to kill her. Mueller was not present at the Monday hearing. The actor, who was detained under his given name of Carlos Irwin Estevez, was released the next day on $8,500 bond. He was charged with menacing, a class five felony; criminal mischief, a class one misdemeanor; and second degree assault, a class four felony. The latter was reduced to third degree assault in a Feb. 8 court hearing. If found guilty on all charges, the 44-year old actor, who has had numerous run-ins with the law in the past, could face up to five years in prison. (Read also: Hollywood's Bad Boys are Back in Court, and Facing Jail Time) Sheen was expected to immediately return to California via private jet Monday to resume production on his hit CBS sitcom later this week. More than midway through filming on its seventh season, "Two and A Half Men" went on hiatus when Sheen, rumored at $900,000 an episode, to be the highest paid actor in television, announced on Feb. 23 that he was entering a rehabilitation facility as a "precautionary measure." The couple's 1-year old twins have been in the care of Sheen's parents since earlier this year. Separated by a restraining order after the Dec. 25 incident, Sheen and Mueller had the order lifted and were reunited on Feb. 8.  Mueller, whose intoxicated state at the time of the Christmas Day 911 call is expected to be a key component of Sheen’s defense, has said she will not cooperate in the case against her husband. Sources close to the case have previously told TheWrap that Aspen Deputy D.A. Arnold Mordkin, who is running the prosecution, intends to “send a message of zero tolerance on domestic violence” and that Charlie Sheen “won’t walk away unscathed." *** Rick Carroll is the managing editor of the Aspen Times; he also covers courts for the daily newspaper. Dominic Patten contributed reporting to this story.

Charlie Sheen's appearance in an Aspen courtroom on domestic violence charges is going to be short and to be the point. At least that's the word according to the “Two and A Half Men” star's publicist. "On Monday, Charlie's court appearance in Aspen is strictly procedural for the sole purpose of entering a plea," Stan Rosenfield told TheWrap. "We have been told that he'll be there under 5 minutes and that is what is we anticipate." With lawyer Richard Cummin at his side, Sheen is expected in Pitkin County District Court Monday afternoon to enter a plea of not guilty in the People of The State of Colorado vs. Carlos Irwin Estevez. The actor's hearing is scheduled for 1:15 PST (2:15PM Aspen time) in front of Ninth Judicial District Court Judge James Boyd. Sheen was arrested on Christmas Day in the Colorado winter resort after police received a 911 call from his wife, Brooke Mueller, claiming the sitcom star had a knife and was threatening to kill her. The actor, who was detained under his given name of Carlos Irwin Estevez, was released the next day on $8,500 bond. Sheen was charged with menacing, a class five felony; criminal mischief, a class one misdemeanor; and second degree assault, a class four felony. The latter was reduced to third degree assault in a Feb. 8 court hearing. If found guilty on all charges, the 44-year old actor, who has had numerous run-ins with the law in the past, could face up to five years in prison. (Read also: Hollywood's Bad Boys are Back in Court, and Facing Jail Time) Following his court appearance, Sheen was expected to immediately return to California via private jet to resume production on his hit CBS sitcom later this week. Over mid-way through filming on its seventh season, "Two and A Half Men" went on hiatus when Sheen, rumored at $900,000 an episode to be the highest paid actor in television, announced on Feb. 23 that he was entering a rehabilitation facility as a "precautionary measure." It's unknown if Mueller, who has been in rehab as well, or Sheen's father Martin Sheen, currently starring in a production of the Pulitzer prize winning play "The Subject Was Roses" in LA, will be accompanying the actor in Aspen. The couple's 1-year old twins have been in the care of Sheen's parents since earlier this year. Separated by a restraining order after the Dec. 25 incident, Sheen and Mueller had the order lifted and were reunited on Feb. 8.  Mueller, whose intoxicated state at the time of the Christmas Day 911 call is expected to be a key component of Sheen’s defense, has said she will not cooperate in the case against her husband.

Sources close to the case have previously told TheWrap that Aspen Deputy D.A. Arnold Mordkin, who is running the prosecution, intends to “send a message of zero tolerance on domestic violence” and that Charlie Sheen “won’t walk away unscathed. 

Lawyers for music producer Phil Spector have asked an appellate court to throw out his second-degree murder conviction on grounds of judicial error and prosecutorial misconduct.

Spector, 70, is in prison serving a sentence of 19 years to life for the 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra, Calif., mansion.

In a 148-page brief filed Wednesday, his lawyers cited multiple reasons they believe Spector was denied his right to a fair trial. They asked the California Second District Court of Appeal to reverse the jury verdict and order a new trial.

Among the issues raised was the admission of testimony from five women who claimed they had been threatened by Spector with guns in the past. Those emotional accounts “became the heart of the state’s case,” the brief said, and were used to persuade jury members to convict Spector “based on his bad character and evil propensities.”

Spector's attorneys said the testimonies of those women had nothing to do with Clarkson’s death and that none of their stories “involved events in which Mr. Spector put a gun in someone’s mouth, much less fired it.”

The lawyers also criticized Judge Larry Paul Fidler, saying he allowed prosecutors to use the word “pattern” more than 40 times to describe Spector’s history with women and guns.

The California state attorney general’s office is expected to file a reply brief next month.

It took prosecutors two trials to convict Spector. The first trial ended in September 2007 with the jury deadlocked 10-2 in favor of conviction.

In April 2009, the second trial ended in Spector's conviction on charges of second-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of a crime. Judge Fidler in May sentenced the music producer to 15 years to life for second-degree murder and four years for personal use of a gun.

The details of Clarkson’s death have remained cloudy throughout both trials.

Clarkson, who appeared in the 1985 B-movie “Barbarian Queen" and had small parts in “Scarface” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” met Spector at the House of Blues; she was found dead of a gunshot wound in the foyer of his home that night.

Spector has maintained that Clarkson found a gun in his house and used it to commit suicide.

Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, who fired his wife for having an affair with a team employee, is now accused in an anonymous letter sent to her lawyers of doing the same, TheWrap has learned.

The note -- which Jamie McCourt's lawyers intend to introduce in court as part of the couple's ongoing divorce battle -- reveals detailed information about an alleged relationship with a Dodgers employee. The person's identity was redacted in the copy obtained exclusively by TheWrap, but was known to its recipients.

“[Redacted] was first upset by his overtures and then felt guilty but then succumbed to his advances,” reads the letter.

(Read the full text of the redacted note here.)

Frank McCourt's lawyer, Marshall Grossman, said the accusation was false.

"Perhaps the letter writer has another person in mind," Grossman told TheWrap. "It's unfortunate that Jamie McCourt's lawyers would spread such a rumor. Most lawyers would recognize that such letters belong in the trash bin and not the media."

Bertram Fields, a lawyer for Jamie, said the letter was sent to him anonymously but contained enough specific detail to be credible.

“If this letter is true, and it sounds like it might well be, it’s not a question of his having affair; if it’s true he’s a gold-medal winner for hypocrisy,” Fields said.“I think this is a guy who trashed his wife of 30 years claiming that she had a relationship with someone in the Dodgers organization. It’s about time people decided for themselves who’s right and who’s wrong.”

Fields said Jamie's divorce attorneys plan to introduce the note in court.

Frank has previously maintained the posture of wronged spouse. His legal team claimed that he had sufficient grounds for firing Jamie as the ball club's chief executive in October because she had an affair with her driver, who was also a Dodgers employee.

Calling Frank's charges "hypocritical," the letter provides salacious details of the affair, saying that the woman's torn loyalties between the couple and feelings of guilt over the affair made her end the relationship and want to move on from the organization.

After she stopped sleeping with Frank, the note charges that the Dodgers owner responded by " ... questioning her ability to those around him in the organization."

The note was faxed to Fields' office and came across the lawyer's desk a month ago. No return address was included.

"[Jamie] didn’t know about the relationship," Fields said. "He fired her because she had relationship – if he did the same thing, he’s just a world-class hypocrite."

The messy divorce case has drawn a media scrutiny since Frank announced that his 30-year marriage was dissolving last October. Het has hit back against his estranged wife's claims of co-ownership of the baseball franchise, claiming that she signed away her share of the team.

In recent weeks, Jamie has further alleged that Frank is underreporting his assets by as much as a billion dollars to scrimp on paying alimony.

Corey Haim was trying to attempt a comeback at the time of his passing, promoting his starring role in the low-budget horror film "American Sunset."

The film was being released by Global Universal Pictures, the Canadian unit of Global Entertainment Holdings. Here's the trailer:

Corey Haim -- the iconic 1980s teen actor best known as one of the "Two Coreys," and who had long struggled with drug addiction -- died early Wednesday in Burbank of a suspected overdose. He was 38.

Sgt. Frank Albarran of the LAPD's North Hollywood division told TheWrap that it received a call from St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank at around 3:40 a.m. local time, informing it of the Canadian-born actor's death. Because medical officials suspect drugs were involved, police were called to investigate, per standard procedure, Sgt. Albarran said.

Haim was forever linked to fellow young actor Corey Feldman after both appeared in 1987's "The Lost Boys." They then co-starred in a number of films, including "License to Drive," "Dream a Little Dream" and “Blown Away.”

The pair attempted a joint TV comeback together via the short-lived A&E reality series "The Two Coreys." Their television reunion, coming more than a decade after their 1980s hit films, proved problematic. The reality show featured a drug-abusing Haim moving in with a sober Feldman and his girlfriend.

The two Coreys frequently clashed on camera and the series, which ran from 2006-07, was canceled after less than two seasons. By the show's end, the pair's relationship had deteriorated to the point where Feldman cut off relations with his former best friend.

"As a friend and somebody that cares deeply about the guy, I'm not going to watch him destroy himself," Feldman told People in 2008.

in a post to his personal blog on Wednesday, Feldman softened his stance in a statement of grief:

I was awakened at 8:30 this morning by my brother and sister knocking on my bedroom door. ... My eyes weren’t even open all the way when the tears started streaming down my face. ... This is a tragic loss of a wonderful, beautiful, tormented soul, who will always be my brother, family, and best friend. We must all take this as a lesson in how we treat the people we share this world with while they are still here to make a difference. (Click here to read the entire statement.)

Haim also starred in the 1986 teen angst semi-classic "Lucas." More recently, he starred in the indie horror movie "American Sunset," billed as his first on-screen role in three years. (View the trailer here.)

Feldman had apparently cleaned up his act while filming his last film role in the cop drama "Decisions" and wasn't required to submit to drug testing, according to Zenon Kesik, an executive producer on the movie.

"He was straight. He didn't appear to be on any substance whatsoever," Kesik told TMZ.

Haim was born Dec. 23, 1971, in Toronto. Growing up, he played hockey and various musical instruments.

Haim said he had dreams of becoming a professional hockey player before pursuing acting.

He began his acting career on the Canadian comedy series “The Edison Twins.” His first feature film role came in 1984's “Firstborn,” starring Robert Downey Jr. and Sarah Jessica Parker. His big break came two years later playing the title role in “Lucas,” which also featured up-and-coming stars Winona Ryder and Charlie Sheen.

The actor struggled mightily with drug addiction. In an interview with the Sun in 2004, he talked about his long history of drug abuse, saying he smoked his first joint on the set of “Lost Boys.”

“I lived in L.A. in the '80s, which was not the best place to be,” Haim told the paper. “I did cocaine for about a year and a half, then it led to crack.”

Haim also said he was sexually abused as a child star.

"It's something that will be addressed in my inner soul for the rest of my life, and it's something that truly affects me," he told GQ in 2008. "It's just like, it happened, it's over, and move on. Let's move on to the next subject."

Dr. Drew Pinsky, of VH1's reality show "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew," said Haim's death "shows us that we should be outraged by the widespread dispatching of prescription medications by my peers. Medications that are leading to the demise of people who should be getting real help."

Asked whether Haim had ever been asked to take part in "Celebrity Rehab," Pinsky told TheWrap: "I've heard that, too. Because I'll be treating these people, I can't get involved in the casting, but I can tell you for sure that his name has come up every season. Now it's too late."

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Corey Haim's Last Movie? Trailer for "American Sunset" (video)