Polanski Efforts To Resolve Statutory Rape Case Rebuffed

A Los Angeles County judge remained unmoved this week by Roman Polanski’s efforts to resolve his 40-year-old statutory rape case. Polanski’s lawyers had asked the court to sentence him in absentia, noting that courts in Poland and Switzerland had already turned down extradition requests from U.S. officials, citing procedural irregularities in the case. Polanski has said he will appear in court only if it agrees to sentence him first. But L.A. County Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon said Polanski had presented “no sufficient or compelling basis for reconsideration of these issues.” Polanski’s legal team said the decision fails to address allegations that prior judges in the case were told how to rule by court officials. Harland Braun, Polanski’s defense attorney, told the Los Angeles Times, “I represent an attempt to straighten out 40 years of judicial misconduct and to see if L.A. Superior Court can heal itself. It can’t.” Polanski, now 83 years old, fled the U.S. in 1978 to avoid the charges, and now lives in France.