Victim asks judge to end sex case against Polanski

LOS ANGELES — Roman Polanski’s sexual assault victim made an impassioned plea Friday to end the fugitive director’s four-decade legal saga, saying she felt more abused by the legal justice system than by the man who she said drugged, raped and sodomized her when she was 13.

“The trauma of the ordeal that followed was so great that, you know, the brief encounter with him that evening that was unpleasant just faded and paled,” Samantha Geimer said outside Los Angeles Superior Court. “It just wasn’t as traumatic for me as everybody would like to believe it was.”

Geimer asked Judge Scott Gordon to either dismiss the case outright or sentence the Oscar winner to the six weeks he served in prison during a court-ordered evaluation before he fled the country on the eve of sentencing in 1978.

“I implore you to consider taking action to finally bring this matter to a close as an act of mercy to myself and my family,” Geimer said.

In downplaying the crime and saying she empathized with Polanski, Geimer took a position at odds with some sexual assault victims. Victims and their advocates have been outspoken recently about lenient sentences in sex abuse cases.

Gordon, who praised Geimer for her courage and elegant words, said he would take the matter under consideration. He has consistently ruled against Polanski’s repeated requests for similar outcomes and has said the director must appear in court to resolve the case.

Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee, who has insisted Polanski return to court to put the matter to rest, opposed Geimer’s plea. Victims have a wide range of rights but cannot dictate the outcome of cases, she said.

Polanski, now 83, contends he is the victim of judicial misconduct because the now-deceased judge who handled the case suggested in private remarks that he would renege on a plea agreement. It called for no more time behind bars for the director after he spent 42 days in a prison undergoing a diagnostic screening.

The hearing Friday was part of an effort by defense attorney Harland Braun to unseal testimony by the now-retired prosecutor in the case, who is believed to have testified in a closed session about backroom sentencing discussions.

Geimer, 54, had long supported Polanski’s efforts to end the case that limits his movements to three European countries, but it was the first time she spoke in favor of him in court. She said she had suffered four decades of insults and mistreatment and has been hounded by the news media.

She said does not dismiss Polanski’s responsibility and does not view him as a victim, but has empathy for the way he’s been treated by the legal system and feels his family has suffered.