Polanski Loses Appeal to Be Sentenced in Absentia

(Bloomberg) -- Roman Polanski lost his appeal of a Californian judge’s ruling that he must come to the U.S. to be sentenced for the 1977 case in which he pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

The film director “failed to demonstrate that the trial court lacked the discretion” to refuse to allow him to be sentenced without being present, a state appeals court in Los Angeles said in a decision posted today on its Web site.

Polanski, 76, who is under house arrest in Switzerland awaiting a decision on a U.S. extradition request, argued last month that Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza committed a legal error by denying his request to be sentenced in absentia.

Polanski previously failed to persuade Espinoza or the appeals court to dismiss the 32-year-old case because of alleged judicial and prosecutorial misconduct. In a December ruling, the appellate panel suggested that if Polanski wanted a hearing on the allegations, he could ask to be sentenced in absentia.

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, said today that the appeals court made the appropriate decision and had no further comment.

Chad Hummel, a lawyer for Polanski, didn’t immediately return a call to his office.

Fugitive Since 1978

Polanski has been a fugitive since he fled the U.S. in 1978 before he was to be sentenced. His lawyers asked the Los Angeles court in December 2008 to throw out the case because, they said, a prosecutor in 1977 and 1978 inappropriately influenced the judge, now deceased, to renege on a promise to sentence Polanski only to the 42 days he spent in prison for a diagnostic study.

The director, whose movies include “The Pianist,” for which he received an Oscar, was arrested Sept. 26 in Zurich. He’s been under house arrest since November. The Swiss government has said it won’t act on the U.S. extradition request until the California courts have resolved Polanski’s sentence, according to his lawyers.

The case is Roman Polanski v. Superior Court of Los Angeles, B223085, California Court of Appeals, Second District (Los Angeles).