On Friday, fugitive filmmaker Roman Polanski had his plea to disqualify the Los Angeles County court system from considering his motion to dismiss a 30-year-old charge of unlawful sex with a minor rejected.

During this week, Polanski’s lawyers filed court papers requesting that the case be taken over by the California Judicial Council, on the grounds that an impartial and out-of-county judge should be assigned to handle it.

Nevertheless, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza reckoned that the motion was not backed by any legal grounds and he consequently dismissed it.

Back in December, the Oscar-winning director’s lawyers filed a separate motion asking that the 30-year-old case be dismissed altogether, claiming that „extraordinary new evidence” had been discovered concerning prosecutorial and judicial misconduct.

On January 21, a hearing with regards to that motion has been scheduled, but Polanski’s lawyers revealed that the filmmaker did not plan to return to the U.S. for it.

On Tuesday, the District Attorney’s Office issued its formal response to the above-mentioned request, stating it opposed dismissal.

Roman Polanski, 75, who won an Academy Award back in 2003 for directing the Holocaust drama „The Pianist,” fled the United States in 1978 and settled in France, when he was on the verge of being sentenced for his guilty plea on the charges brought to him, of having had unlawful sex with an underage girl.

Since Polanski is natively from France, he cannot be extradited, still he faces arrest as a fugitive from justice if he ever returns to the U.S. Originally, Polanski  was indicted on six charges, including rape, for having had sex with a 13-year-old girl after he had given her champagne and drugs.