Polanski lawyers argue for time served

Lawyers for director Roman Polanski, in Switzerland waiting for possible extradition to the U.S. on a 32-year-old sex case, say he should be sentenced in absentia for time served.

A legal brief filed in a Los Angeles Superior Court accuses the L.A. district attorney's office of using inflammatory language while also arguing that Polanski's 42-day sentence back in 1977 is binding.

Polanski admitted to having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977 and pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse.

He served 42 days in a California jail under a deal with the late judge Laurence J. Rittenband.

When Rittenband indicated he would renege on the deal after Polanski was finished that term, the filmmaker fled the U.S. in 1978 and has since lived in France. He was arrested in Switzerland in September while attending a film festival in Zurich.

Since the start of December, the 76-year-old director has been serving house arrest at his chalet in the Swiss ski resort town of Gstaad.

Polanski's lawyers have protested the district attorney's office of using provocative language in the extradition case, in referring to their client as a "child rapist."

"The use of this phrase is highly inappropriate and deliberately inflammatory," said the legal document. "The terms 'rape' and `child' appear nowhere in this statute. This phrase was obviously calculated to garner, as it did, attention in the press."

They are referring to Deputy District Attorney David Walgren's document arguing that Polanski be extradited to the U.S. to appear in court.

Walgren wrote that the filmmaker was "a fugitive and convicted child rapist [who] must not be permitted to instruct his court how to proceed.

"The operation of a fair and equitable judicial system mandates hat criminals, even those with celebrity status and wealthy means bide by lawful court orders."

The key argument Polanski's lawyers are putting forth is that Rittenband's original 42-day ruling was an official sentence and that it was already served.

The prosecution has countered by saying it was not a formal sentence.

Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza has scheduled a hearingfor Friday to decide whether Polanski can be sentenced in absentia.