Roman Polanski, the headline-making 76-year-old film director, will not be extradited to the United States to face sentencing for having sex with a minor more than three decades ago. In a statement released yesterday, the Swiss authorities cited the U.S. government's unwillingness to turn over secret testimony offered by a former prosecutor earlier this year as one of the reasons the cultural icon will not be extradited.

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District Attorney Steve Cooley is up in arms about the Swiss decision. Cooley vows to work with U.S. officials to get the Oscar-winning director on these shores if he is arrested again in a place that has a favorable extradition treaty. "To justify their finding to deny extradition on an issue that is unique to California law regarding conditional examination of a potentially unavailable witness is a rejection of the competency of the California courts," Cooley said. "The Swiss could not have found a smaller hook on which to hang their hat."

The D.A. also insists that every request made by the Swiss was duly noted and taken care of by his department and by U.S. authorities as part of the extradition process.

Polanski has been confined to house arrest due to a U.S. sex conviction that involved him having sex with a 13-year-old girl back in 1977. He has made his comfy bed at his breathtakingly beautiful multimillion-dollar chalet in the upscale ski resort of Gstaad. On the day of his sentencing in 1978, Polanski hightailed out of the United States after pleading guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

Swiss officials arrested the filmmaker in September of last year when he entered the country to accept a Lifetime Achievement award at a Zurich film festival. During his "house arrest," Polanski was free to roam the grounds of his resort-like property and was even allowed visitors.

Meanwhile the 33-year-old arrest warrant for Polanski remains active in Los Angeles. Cooley adds that the Swiss decision not to comply is a "disservice to justice and other victims as a whole."