nietuskaczka
07.01.10, 02:39
Polanski asks to be sentenced in absentia in 1970s sex case
January 6, 2010 | 3:59 pm
Roman Polanski has asked a Los Angeles judge to sentence him in
absentia for having sex with a 13-year-old in 1977.
In a notarized letter submitted to a Los Angeles County Superior
Court judge at a hearing Wednesday afternoon, the filmmaker
wrote, "I request the judgment be pronounced against me in my
absence."
The letter was dated Dec. 29 and signed in Gstaad, the Swiss resort
town where the director is under house arrest pending a decision by
a Swiss judge on whether to extradite him to the United States.
Judge Peter Espinoza accepted the letter but said he would not
decide whether such a proceeding was appropriate until a Jan 22
hearing.
An appellate court proposed sentencing in absentia as a way to
resolve the three-decade-old case in a decision last month in which
the justices denied Polanski's request for a complete dismissal of
charges.
Espinoza, the presiding judge of the Superior Court's criminal
division, told defense lawyers that the justices' proposal was "a
suggestion" and "certainly wasn't a directive
