A California appeals court Monday rejected a petition by filmmaker Roman Polanski to have a child sex case against him dismissed.
The 76-year-old Oscar-winning director of The Pianist is under house arrest in Switzerland, where he was arrested in September. The U.S. wants him to face sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
The California 2nd District Court of Appeal said in a statement posted on its Web site that it would not consider Polanski’s request until he returned to the U.S.
“In another chapter of what surely must be one of the longest-running sagas in California criminal justice history, Roman Polanski, a fugitive since 1978, asked the trial court to exercise its discretionary authority to dismiss the criminal prosecution against him that has been pending since 1977,” the opinion written by Judge Peter P. Espinoza said.
“The trial court declined to consider Polanski’s request until Polanski submitted to the court’s jurisdiction by returning to the United States and appearing in court.”
The justices said in reaching their decision they had not disregarded “the extremely serious allegations of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct” that had been brought forward by Polanski’s lawyers in their appeal.
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