US judge refuses Roman Polanski’s plea to end rape case

Roman Polanski has failed again to have his 40-year-old US statutory rape case ended.

The Oscar-winning director had made a new legal attempt put his underage sex conviction behind him so he possibly return to the US, but his hope of resolving the case has been denied by a Superior Court judge in Los Angeles today.

Polanski pleaded guilty in 1977 to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl, who he had plied with champagne and a sedative during a modelling shoot at actor Jack Nicholson’s house, and spent some time in jail prior to being sentenced.

But he fled the country in 1978, scared that he was going to be given a lengthy prison sentence, and the Los Angeles district attorney’s office has continued to threaten to jail the director. As a result, he is currently only able to travel from his country of residence, France, to his birth country, Poland, and to Switzerland, all of which have refused previous US requests to extradite Polanski.

In his latest legal attempt to resolve the case, the 83-year-old wanted US prospectors to give some indication on how long he would serve in prison if he returned to the US, arguing through his lawyers that he was promised in his original plea bargain that he would not serve any further jail time, USA Today reported.

But a prosecutor from the LA DA’s office Polanski’s latest legal mote an attempt by a wealthy celebrity to negotiate his sentence from afar, the newspaper said. 

Today Judge Scott Gordon denied Polanski’s motion to resolve the case, citing previous Californian rulings on the case, USA Today reported.

In her 2012 memoir, Polanski’s victim, Susan Geimer, who received a legal settlement from Polanski, said that she supported his attempt to end the case.

Do you remember this case? Do you think the US should drop its attempts to jail Roman Polanski?