Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski has lost his latest bid to be sentenced while outside the United States for having unlawful sex with a minor more than three decades ago. Affirming the decision of a Los Angeles judge in January, a state appeals court ruled Polanski must return to California before he can be sentenced and bring his 33-year-long legal saga to a close.
The decision clears the way for Swiss authorities to extradite the 78-year-old fugitive filmmaker to the US.
The director of such film classics as Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby fled the US for his native France in 1978 and is now fighting extradition from Switzerland.
The appellate panel found Polanski “failed to demonstrate” that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza lacked the discretion to refuse his request to remain abroad while the case against him was concluded.
A spokeswoman for Polanski, Sarah Ingram, said that his lawyers had no comment on the appeals court rulings.
Denial of his appeal to be sentenced in absentia came shortly after the same court rejected a separate petition filed by the woman who was his victim at the age of 13 to have the case dismissed altogether.
Samantha Geimer, now in her 40s and a mother of three living quietly in Hawaii, has long sought to put the protracted court battle to rest, arguing that she has become victimised all over again by the efforts of prosecutors to bring Polanski to justice.
Ms Geimer was an aspiring child model in 1977 when she went to a Hollywood house for a photo shoot with Polanski, who was subsequently charged with raping the girl after plying her with champagne and drugs.
Polanski pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor but fled the country before sentencing, fearing the judge would renege on a plea agreement limiting his punishment to 42 days he already had spent behind bars for psychiatric evaluation.
He has since lived as a fugitive in Europe, facing the prospect of arrest the moment he set foot back on US soil while continuing his film career. In 2003, he won an Oscar for best director for the acclaimed Holocaust film The Pianist.
His latest film, The Ghost Writer, has received critical acclaim and won him the best director prize at the Berlin film festival in February.
Polanski was taken into custody in Switzerland in September on a US warrant and remains there under house arrest at his home in Gstaad on $4.5 million bail. Swiss officials have said they are awaiting the outcome of US legal proceedings before deciding whether to extradite him.
His lawyers have fought for years to have the case thrown out on grounds that Polanski was himself a victim of judicial misconduct, an issue prosecutors and judges have so far been unwilling to consider so long as he remains a fugitive.