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On Monday, a Los Angeles County judge denied filmmaker Roman Polanski's latest bid to resolve his forty-year old statutory rape case without further jail time.
It's been nearly four decades since the filmmaker fled the United States in 1978 after serving 42 days in jail for the 1977 rape of a 13-year-old girl. The Rosemary's Baby director fled the U.S. to avoid serving what he feared would be a substantially longer sentence for the crime, and he hasn't returned to U.S. soil since.
In March, Polanski's attorney argued that although the crime Polanski committed was "indefensible," the 83-year-old had already served enough time for it (beyond his 1978 jail stay, Polanski also served nearly a year in a Swiss prison in the 2000s). Polanski's attorney Harland Braun filed a motion asking L.A. Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon to either ask the District Attorney's office to state on the record whether they intend to have Polanski serve more time, or to allow him to be sentenced in absentia. Braun had stated that Polanski would return to the U.S. if a judge determined that the director had "already done his time," according to City News Service.
Judge Gordon rejected the defense's requests, ruling that there was "no sufficient or compelling basis for reconsideration of these issues," according to City News Service.
